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Margoliouth,  D.  S.  1858-194 
Religions  of  Bible  lands 


CHRISTIAN  STUDY  MANUALS 


Edited  by  the  Rev. 
R.    E.   WELSH,   M.A. 


PROFESSOR  MARGOLIOUTH S 
RELIGIONS    OF    BIBLE    LANDS 


NEW  YORK 

A.     C.     ARMSTRONG     AND     SON 

3  AND  5  WEST  EIGHTEENTH  STREET 

LONDON:    HODDER   AND    STOUGHTON 


RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE 
LANDS 


D.  S.  MARGOLIOUTH,  M.A. 

Laudian  Professor  of  Arabic,  Oxford 


NEW  YORK 

A.     C.     ARMSTRONG     AND     SON 

3  AND  5  WEST  EIGHTEENTH  STREET 

LONDON :    HODDER  AND  STOUGHTON 


PREFACE 

Of  works  dealing  with  Comparative  Religion  the 
first  place  for  learning,  acuteness,  and  suggestive- 
ness  is  probably  to  be  assigned  to  J.  G.  Frazer's 
Golden  Bough;  it  is  indeed  a  grammar  of  the 
subject,  containing  paradigms  and  categories  to 
which  it  is  ordinarily  easy  to  refer  religious 
practices  and  doctrines.  The  religions  to  which  the 
following  sketches  refer  are  treated  in  the  classical 
works  of  Tiele  and  De  La  Saussaye ;  in  the  former 
they  are  described  by  one  who  was  an  expert  in  all, 
in  the  latter  by  a  series  of  specialists :  the  History 
of  Religion  by  Dr.  Allan  Menzies  is  on  a  smaller 
scale,  but  covers  the  same  ground  as  these  great 
classics.  Of  works  dealing  especially  with  the 
Religion  of  the  Semites  the  unfinished  Lectures  of 
the  lamented  Robertson  Smith  are  the  best  repre- 
sentative ;  much  of  the  matter  has  still  to  be 
collected  from  the  notes  by  which  various  collec- 
tions of  inscriptions  have  been  elucidated;  except, 
indeed,  in   the   case    of   the    Assyrian    Religion,  on 


vi  PREFACE 

which  there  are  many  treatises,  the  latest  in  English 
being  probably  that  by  Mr.  L.  W.  King,  whose 
other  works  also  provide  valuable  material.  A  text 
and  translation  of  the  chief  Babylonian  Myths  and 
Epics  form  the  latest  volume  of  the  Keilinschrift- 
liche  Bibliothek.  For  the  Religion  of  Egypt  the 
scholarly  and  brilliant  treatises  of  E.  W.  Budge  are 
most  helpful;  portions  of  the  subject  are  dealt 
with  by  Maspero  in  his  Mythological  Essays,  and 
in  the  treatises  of  Brugsch,  Wiedemann,  and  von 
Strauss  und  Torney.  For  the  Religion  of  Persia  the 
History  of  the  Par  sis,  by  D.  F.  Karaka,  as  the  work 
of  a  believer,  is  peculiarly  instructive ;  otherwise  the 
material  contained  in  the  contributions  of  Darm- 
steter,  Mills  and  West  to  the  Sacred  Boohs  of 
the  East  is  probably   the    best  available. 

The  nature  of  these  Manuals  scarcely  permits  of 
constant  references  to  authorities.  I  hope,  however, 
that  there  is  no  statement  below  for  which  some 
good  authority  could  not  be  cited,  though,  where 
there  is  a  question  of  weighing  probabilities,  the 
writer  has  had  to  trust  his  own  judgment. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  I. 


Introduction 


1.  Bible  Lands. 

2.  Their  "Articles  of  Religion  ". 

3.  Method  of  Study. 

CHAPTER  II. 

Semitic  Religions 

1.  Sources. 

2.  Class— Polytheism. 

3.  Names  of  Gods. 

4.  Mixture  of  Gods. 

5.  Character  of  Gods. 

6.  Duties  towards  Gods  :— 
(a)  Residences  of  the  Gods. 

(c)  Servants  of  the  Gods. 

(d)  Food  of  the  Gods. 

(e)  Sympathy. 
(/)  Entertainment. 

7.  Prophecy. 

8.  Cosmogony. 

9.  Morals. 

(b)  Gifts  to  the  Gods. 

10.  Future  Life. 

CHAPT 

ER  III. 

The  Religion  of  Egypt 

62 


Sources. 
The  Mummy. 
Animal  Worship. 
Gods  of  Egypt. 
The  Sun  God. 


6.  Other  Deities. 

7.  Festivals. 

8.  Sacred  Books. 

9.  Mysticism. 


CONTENTS 


CHAPTER  IV. 


The  Religion  of  Persia 


page 
94 


Zoroaster. 

Sacred  Books. 

The  Tower  of  Silence. 

Clean  and  Unclean. 

The  Worship  of  Fire. 

Dualism :  Ormuzd,  Ahriman. 


7.  Vestiges  of  Polytheism. 

8.  Religious  Operations. 

9.  Theory  of  a  Future  State. 

10.  Cosmogony. 

11.  Spirit  of  Mazdeism. 


CHAPTER  I. 
INTRODUCTION. 

1.  Bible  Lands. — By  Bible  Lands  we  mean  coun- 
tries in  which  considerable  portions  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment history  were  enacted,  or  whose  inhabitants 
exercised  considerable  influence  on  the  Israelitish 
people. 

The  study  of  the  religions  dominant  in  these 
countries  is  of  importance  for  the  right  understand- 
ing of  those  parts  of  the  Old  Testament  in  which 
foreign  practices  are  condemned,  and  also  for  the 
better  comprehension  of  the  ceremonies  permitted  or 
encouraged  in  the  Biblical  books.  In  a  system 
which  assumed  an  attitude  of  fierce  hostility  towards 
other  systems  attention  is  necessarily  directed  to 
what  was  similar  and  what  was  dissimilar  in  their 
respective  institutions. 

According  to  the  Biblical  narrative  the  founder  of 
the  Israelites  came  from  a  place  probably  in  Mesopo- 
tamia. He  and  his  descendants  for  two  generations 
lived  in  the  nomad  state  in  Palestine,  occasionally 
visiting  other  countries.  Their  descendants  grew  into 
a  nation  in  the  Egyptian  Delta,  whence  they  returned 
and  seized  the  land  of  Canaan,  expelling  the  inhabi- 


2  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

tants  from  their  cities.  This  process,  which  was  not 
without  vicissitudes,  culminated  in  their  supremacy 
on  both  sides  of  Jordan,  and  over  a  great  variety  of 
States.  After  many  centuries  they  were  transplanted 
by  kings  of  Assyria  and  Babylonia  to  the  east  of 
the  Euphrates,  whence  a  portion  of  the  nation  was 
restored  to  Palestine  by  Persian  kings.  The  latest 
name  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament  is  that  of  a 
contemporary  of  Alexander  the  Great. 

Bible  Lands  are  therefore  chiefly  the  lands  either 
comprised  in  or  adjacent  to  Canaan.  Phoenicia,  Phil- 
istia  and  Syria  were  sufficiently  famous  to  be  men- 
tioned by  the  classics  of  the  West ;  many  more  of  the 
nations  or  States  mentioned  in  the  Old  Testament  as 
near  neighbours  of  the  Israelites  receive  notice  in  As- 
syrian monuments,  and  some  in  yet  older  Egyptian 
documents.  Of  the  seven  nations  whom  the  Israelites 
claimed  more  especially  to  have  displaced,  one,  the 
Hittites,  played  a  prominent  part  in  ancient  history. 

Although  the  sentiments  cherished  by  the  Israelites 
towards  the  races  that  they  found  established  in 
Canaan  on  their  return  thither  were  fiercely  hostile, 
the  evidence  of  language  might  prove  them  to  be  their 
kin.  Whatever  may  be  the  origin  of  the  name  Abra- 
ham, his  sons  and  grandsons  have  Semitic  names. 
The  name  by  which  the  nation  contrasted  itself  with 
foreigners,  the  Hebrews,  has  an  obvious  Semitic 
etymology ;  like  Perseans,  it  means  the  people  from 
the  opposite  bank  or  shore.  Equally  Semitic  is  the 
name  of  their  bitter  enemies  the  Philistines ;  their 


INTRODUCTION  3 

collective  appellation  means  the  wanderers  or  exiles, 
a  word  which  is  familiar  in  one  of  the  South  Semitic 
dialects,  and  the  sense  of  which  was  still  known  when 
the  Septuagint  translation  of  the  Bible  was  made. 
The  language  of  Canaan  was  also  the  language  of  the 
Phoenicians,  with  whom  the  Israelites  had  relations, 
sometimes  friendly  and  sometimes  hostile,  and  of 
Moab,  which  incurred  the  fierce  hatred  of  Israelite 
legislators.  Of  the  names  of  places  current  in  Pales- 
tine before  the  Israelitish  immigration  there  are  but 
few  which  must  be  interpreted  from  non- Semitic 
sources.  Of  the  names  recorded  in  the  Book  of 
Joshua  the  greater  number  are  without  doubt  Semitic 
appellations. 

Being  then  so  closely  akin  to  the  Canaanites,  the 
Chosen  Race  had  a  natural  sympathy  with  the  re- 
ligions which  they  found  in  vogue,  and,  as  we  learn 
from  the  Bible,  were  ever  ready  to  return  to  them. 

The  further  back  the  Aramaic  language  is  traced 
.the  closer  is  its  resemblance  to  the  idiom  of  the 
Canaanites.  The  Bible  represents  the  Syrians  as 
cousins  of  the  Israelites,  and  brings  them  into  close 
and  on  the  whole  friendly  relations  with  the  latter 
at  many  periods.  The  Syrian  language  became  the 
second  mother-tongue  of  the  Jews  at  the  time  of  the 
exile,  and  a  variety  of  it  is  still  the  vernacular  of 
some  of  the  Jewish  communities  in  the  East.  It 
is  even  possible  that  during  the  time  of  Israelitish 
independence  there  were  communities  whose  native 
language  was  Syriac  rather  than  Canaanitish.     Hence 


4  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

Syria  may  be  treated  as  a  Bible  Land  without 
question. 

The  oldest  monuments  of  the  Semitic  language  are 
in  Assyrian,  of  which  Babylonian  is  a  dialect.  Ee- 
peated  excavations  have  enabled  scholars  to  trace 
the  existence  of  this  idiom  to  a  period  that  might  be 
regarded  as  fabulous.  Largely  mixed  with  a  foreign 
vocabulary  and  with  the  characteristic  Semitic  sounds 
softened  and  confused,  and  defaced  by  a  system  of 
writing  in  which  the  root-system  is  obliterated,  it  is 
nevertheless  a  branch  of  the  Semitic  stock.  The 
nations  who  employed  it  constituted  a  great  world- 
power — one  whose  influence  was  felt  by  the  Oanaan- 
ites  long  before  and  also  long  after  the  Israelitish 
immigration,  and  the  names  of  whose  gods  were 
in  consequence  familiar  to  the  Israelitish  prophets. 
Yet  the  title  Bible  Land  seems  scarcely  appropriate  to 
a  country  in  which  the  greater  part  of  the  Israelitish 
race  disappeared  from  history,  and  which  the  restored 
community  abandoned,  taking  with  them  no  feeling 
but  abhorrence. 

To  the  land  of  Egypt  there  are  many  allusions  in 
the  Old  Testament,  and  some  of  the  writers  display 
a  familiar  acquaintance  with  Egyptian  customs.  Al- 
lusions to  Egyptian  religions  seem  to  be  intentionally 
avoided,  and  detestation  of  Egypt  was  for  a  long 
time  a  leading  motive  in  Israelitish  policy.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  history  of  independent  Israel  this 
feeling  vanished,  and  Egypt  became  the  home  of 
many   Jewish    exiles   from   the   time   of   Jeremiah, 


INTRODUCTION  5 

becoming  at  a  much  later  time  the  place  where 
Israelitish  ideas  mingled  with  and  became  modified 
by  the  discoveries  of  the  Greeks.  After  Canaan 
Egypt  is  the  land  which  affects  Biblical  history  most. 

The  Persian  Empire  is  associated  with  the  restora- 
tion of  the  national  existence  of  the  Jews,  and  many 
of  the  episodes  of  the  later  Biblical  history  passed  in 
Persian  cities.  To  the  religion  of  the  Persians  the 
Jews  are  not  disinclined  to  acknowledge  certain 
obligations,  and  to  the  similarity  of  their  religious 
beliefs  the  latter  probably  owed  the  special  favour 
with  which  they  were  treated  by  the  former.  Liberal 
treatment  by  the  ruling  Power  has  almost  invariably 
had  the  effect  of  rendering  the  Israelites  expansive 
and  ready  to  adopt  ideas  unconnected  or  even  at 
variance  with  their  own  religious  system.  Whereas, 
therefore,  the  cruelties  which  they  associated  with 
the  names  of  Egypt  at  the  commencement  of  their 
history  and  of  Babylon  at  the  end  of  it  rendered 
them  averse  to  the  practices  of  these  countries,  the 
benefit  which  they  had  derived  from  Persia  caused 
them  to  regard  the  cult  of  that  country  with  tolera- 
tion. The  difficulties  of  dating  the  documents  of  the 
Israelites  render  the  detection  of  borrowings  from 
Persia  peculiarly  difficult.  But  in  regarding  Persia 
as  a  Bible  Land  for  our  present  purpose  we  are 
clearly  justified. 

2.  Their  "Articles  of  Religion  ".—The  drawing 
up  of  articles  of  religion  is  invariably  a  late  process ; 
beliefs  and  practices  exist  long  before  it  occurs  to  any 


6  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

one  to  codify  the  former  or  to  analyse  the  latter. 
Thus  when  we  learn  that  the  Jewish  articles  of  faith 
are  613,  we  may  infer  that  they  were  not  drawn  up 
till  the  Jews  had  learned  to  count  by  letters,  that 
number  standing  clearly  in  some  relation  to  the 
numerical  value  of  the  Jewish  name  for  the  law ; 
and  counting  by  letters  was  learned  by  them  from 
the  Greeks.  These  articles  then  were  not  drawn  up 
till  many  centuries  after  the  national  religion  had 
been  practised.  In  the  case  of  the  religions  with 
which  we  are  dealing  we  possess  no  such  handbooks  ; 
we  must,  therefore,  be  on  our  guard  against  trying  to 
know  more  than  the  worshippers  knew  about  their 
cults.  Most  of  all  we  must  remember  that  the 
distinction  between  the  real  and  the  imaginary,  be- 
tween truth  and  falsehood,  is  one  that  belongs  to  a 
late  period  of  human  progress  ;  and  one  which  is 
differently  appreciated  by  different  minds  even  in 
civilised  times.  Hence  in  drawing  up  an  account  of 
an  ancient  religion  we  must  expect  to  find  many  con- 
tradictory propositions. 

The  philosopher  Nietzsche  has  with  great  justice 
compared  the  savage  consciousness  to  the  dreaming 
state  :  sensations  are  ascribed  to  imaginary  causes, 
and  in  the  assignment  of  those  causes  there  are  no 
laws  of  chronology,  nor  of  space,  nor  even  of  identity  ; 
a  dead  man  can  act  as  well  as  a  living  one ;  even 
between  the  subject  and  the  object  there  is  no  clear 
line  of  demarcation.  The  gods  may  be  thought  of 
sometimes   as   mortal,   sometimes  as  immortal  ;    as 


INTRODUCTION  7 

many,  and  as  one  ;  as  passionless,  and  as  passionate  ; 
when  man  has  begun  to  reflect  he  will  discover  an 
inconsistency  between  these  epithets,  but  while  he  is 
still  in  the  dream  state  he  is  unconscious  of  it. 

When,however,  reflection  has  commenced,  theology 
begins  to  take  the  place  of  religion.     This  means  that 
the   creations   of  dreamland    are    subjected   to   the 
categories  by  which  experiences  of  the  waking  state 
are  interpreted.     Systems  so  evolved  often  give  rise 
to  official  religions,  but  do  not  greatly  affect  the  mass 
of  those  who  have  neither  time  nor  inclination  for 
abstract  thought.     Hence  the  speculations  of  priests 
are  ordinarily  regarded  as  an  unsafe  source  for  the 
study  of  a  nation's  religion.     The  comparison  of  the 
practice  of  different  communities  is  thought  to  be  a 
safer  guide  both  to  the  original  purpose  of  a  practice 
and  to  the  instinct  which  fostered  it.     This  does  not 
prevent  the  possibility  of  the  religion  of  a  race  de- 
veloping in  one  direction  rather  than  another,  but  it 
is  rare  that  national  religions  can  with  justice  be  de- 
clared to  be  pervaded  by  some  distinct  dogma.     On 
the  other  hand,  the  reasons  for  practices  are  per- 
petually shifting,  and  while  we  are  not  justified  in 
attributing  to  those  who  maintain  them  at  any  parti- 
cular time  the  most  enlightened  of  current  explana- 
tions, we  are  also  not  entitled  to  attribute  to  them 
the  naive  reason  which  originally  gave  rise  to  the 
practice.     Hence  a  description  of  a  religion,  so  long 
as  it  is  confined  to  names  and  customs,  may  well  be 
accurate  ;  when  it  exceeds  those  regions,  it  runs  the 


8  KELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

risk  of  ascribing  to  a  community  what  is  the  property 
of  certain  individuals. 

3.  Our  Method  therefore  will  be  to  collect  and 
explain  the  chief  names  which  the  records  of  these 
religions  furnish  us.  Familiarly  employed  by  the 
worshippers,  they  were  associated  with  certain  ideas  ; 
frequently  we  can  place  ourselves  in  the  position  of 
the  worshippers,  and  see  things  through  their  eyes. 
Even  where  the  records  are  exceedingly  imperfect,  we 
have  rarely  (for  this  purpose)  to  deplore  much  more 
than  the  loss  of  names  ;  the  real  has  a  history,  and  an 
endless  series  of  facts  attaching  to  it :  the  characters 
of  fiction  have  no  ancestry  and  no  contemporaries. 


CHAPTER  II. 
SEMITIC  RELIGIONS. 

1.  Sources. — The  original  home  of  the  Semites 
appears  to  have  been  Arabia,  whence  by  a  series  of 
migrations  they  spread  into  Assyria,  Syria  and 
Palestine.  One  branch  of  the  Palestinian  family, 
the  Phoenicians,  sent  colonies  over  the  whole  coast 
of  the  Mediterranean.  So  far  as  we  can  trace  the 
history  of  the  Semites  by  the  aid  of  comparative 
grammar,  before  the  first  of  these  migrations  they 
had  already  acquired  a  fair  degree  of  civilisation. 
The  names  for  the  domestic  relationships  and  for 
some  political  institutions  are  common  to  the  whole 
Semitic  family ;  so  also  are  the  names  for  some  of 
the  objects  and  processes  which  enable  men  to  live 
in  comfort.  But  religions  are  ordinarily  conserva- 
tive, and  to  understand  some  rites  and  practices  we 
have  to  go  back  in  thought  beyond  the  documents 
which  we  possess.  Vestiges  are  to  be  found  of  a 
state  of  savagery  which  the  Semites,  ere  the  first 
migration,  would  seem  to  have  outgrown. 

The  physical  features  of  Arabia  caused  its  inhabi- 
tants from  early  times  to  be  divided  into  nomad 
communities  and  settled  communities.  The  fertile 
(9) 


10  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

regions  developed  a  luxurious  town-life,  whereas  the 
desert  retained  its  charm  for  the  Bedouin.  Probably 
the  ranks  of  each  of  these  divisions  were  constantly 
recruited  from  those  of  the  other.  The  need  for 
more  means  of  subsistence  drove  the  increasing 
population  to  make  fresh  directions,  as  the  Arabs 
call  nations  ;  and  for  enterprises  of  the  sort  which 
required  numbers  the  members  of  many  tribes  would 
unite. 

We  should  naturally  seek  the  oldest  Semitic  re- 
ligion in  Arabia,  and  among  the  Bedouins.  Their 
religions,  however,  were  abolished  by  Mohammed 
and  his  successors,  and  we  know  little  about  them 
beyond  what  the  Arabic  antiquarians  thought  fit  to 
preserve.  These  authors  lived  for  the  most  part 
some  generations  after  the  abolition  of  the  old  wor- 
ships, with  which  many  of  them  had  little  sympathy. 
Their  information  is,  therefore,  meagre,  and  has 
ordinarily  to  be  received  with  caution. 

Of  the  ancient  States  that  occupied  the  fertile 
portions  of  Arabia  many  monuments  have  been 
discovered  ;  some  that  can  be  dated  go  back  to  the 
eighth  century  B.C.,  and  it  is  probable  that  many  are 
far  earlier.  They  are  not  exclusively  religious  in 
character,  but  for  the  most  part  give  some  informa- 
tion that  throws  light  on  the  cults  that  prevailed. 
Many  are  tablets  which  either  record  gifts  to  the 
gods  or  commemorate  answers  to  prayers. 

For  the  religions  of  the  Syrian  States  we  possess 
documents  of  about  the  same   age  as  the  earliest 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  11 

that  can  be  dated  of  the  last  named.  They  are 
inscriptions  composed  by  vassals  of  the  Assyrian 
kings,  the  very  names  of  whose  States  would  with- 
out these  inscriptions  be  unknown.  Occasional 
monuments  are  preserved  from  the  succeeding 
centuries,  till  about  the  time  of  the  Christian  era 
they  become  common,  and  continue  so  till  about 
the  break-up  of  paganism. 

For  about  the  same  period  we  possess  a  series  of 
monuments  in  dialects  of  the  Phoenician  language, 
the  greater  number  being  from  the  neighbourhood 
of  Carthage,  and  being  worded  in  precisely  the 
same  style,  save  for  the  difference  in  the  names 
of  the  persons  who  caused  them  to  be  written. 
One  inscription  of  importance  is  provided  by  Israel's 
near  neighbour  Moab. 

Earlier  than  all  these  are  the  Tell-el-Amarna 
tablets,  a  series  of  letters  addressed  by  persons 
resident  in  Palestine  to  residents  in  Egypt ;  they 
were  composed  in  the  fifteenth  century  b.c.  Their 
contents,  which  are  often  obscure,  are  chiefly  polit- 
ical ;  but  they  contain  precious  information  about 
the  prevalent  religions  also. 

Of  all  the  Semitic  countries  the  only  one  which 
has  left  a  religious  pagan  literature  is  Assyria.  A 
large  collection  of  texts  still  exists  in  the  Assyrian 
language,  not  unfrequently  translated  from  the 
original  Sumerian  or  Accadian,  consisting  of  epics, 
theogonies,  psalms  and  prayers.  From  these  texts 
we  obtain  the  same  sort  of  information  concerning 


12  EELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

the  Assyrian  worship  as  we  get  from  Greek  and 
Indian  authors  about  the  ideas  and  practices  of 
their  respective  countries.  Whereas  the  greater 
number  of  Semitic  deities  are  for  us  mere  names, 
those  of  Assyria  have  some  sort  of  history  and 
character. 

Besides  these  monuments  the  Bible  is  itself  a 
source  of  information  about  the  religions  of  Bible 
Lands.  It  is  true  the  Israelites  were  forbidden  to 
mention  the  gods  of  their  neighbours  (Exodus  xxiii. 
13) ;  and  acquaintance  with  the  religious  practices 
of  the  "idolaters"  was  regarded  by  the  pious  as 
in  itself  a  danger.  Copyists  of  the  Old  Testament, 
where  the  name  "god"  was  given  to  an  idol,  were 
in  the  habit  of  altering  it  to  "  horror  "  or  "  abomina- 
tion ".  With  the  Prophets  a  foreign  religion  was  not 
a  subject  for  sympathetic  study  but  for  mockery  and 
detestation.  Still  the  rule  of  Exodus  was  not  con- 
sistently carried  out.  Numerous  places  were  called 
after  pagan  deities  (e.g.,  Beth-Shemesh,  Beth-Dagon, 
Beth-Lehem,  Beth-Anoth,  Beth-Chanan,  Anathoth, 
Ashteroth  Karnaim),  and  though  some  of  these  were 
altered  by  pious  monotheists,  the  greater  number 
retained  their  old  names.  Moreover,  by  the  side  of 
the  stern  monotheists  of  whom  Moses  is  the  type 
there  were  always  persons  who  shared  the  tolerance 
of  Aaron.  One  of  the  Judges  (xi.  24)  went  so  far  as 
to  admit  that  the  Moabites  got  their  country  from 
Chemosh  just  as  the  Israelites  got  theirs  from 
Jehovah.      Another  text   implies   that  sacrifices  to 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  13 

the  former  deity  were  effectual  (2  Kings  iii.  27). 
Even  Abraham  is  made  to  identify  the  deity  of 
Melchizedek,  King  of  Salem,  with  his  own  (Gen.  xiv. 
22).  Such  political  operations  as  treaties,  alliances, 
and  even  truces,  could  not  be  made  binding  without 
the  witness  of  gods,  and  on  such  occasions  the  exist- 
ence of  foreign  deities  had  to  be  recognised.  Visitors, 
whose  presence  was  not  discouraged  by  the  Israelites, 
whether  they  came  for  commerce  or  for  the  perfor- 
mance of  definite  services,  were  sure  to  let  something 
be  known  of  the  religion  which  they  followed  at 
home.  Hence  the  Biblical  legislation  and  remon- 
strance, even  where  they  condemn  foreign  practices 
most  severely,  sometimes  manifest  some  acquain- 
tance with  their  externals.  Bible  statements  as  to  the 
localities  of  particular  cults  are  not  unfrequently 
confirmed  by  the  evidence  of  monuments.  With 
more  than  the  externals  of  foreign  religions  it  is  not 
concerned. 

Finally,  some  of  the  classical  (Greek  and  Eoman) 
writers  were  interested  in  foreign  religions,  and 
either  wrote  about  them  themselves,  or  encouraged 
the  production  of  translations  from  original  treatises 
bearing  on  the  subject.  Lucian  (ob.  circ.  180  a.d., 
himself  a  Syrian  from  Samosata)  has  left  a  treatise  on 
the  Syrian  goddess.  A  portion  of  a  work  on  Phoeni- 
cian religion  by  Sakkun-yathan  ("the  gift  of  Sakkun") 
was  translated  by  Philo  of  Byblus,  and  is  preserved 
by  Eusebius.  Doubts  concerning  the  Phoenician 
origin  of  this  work  have  been  dispelled  by  the  fact 


14  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

that  the  sense  of  both  parts  of  the  author's  name, 
till  recent  times  unknown,  has  been  ascertained 
owing  to  fresh  finds  of  inscriptions  in  the  Phoenician 
language.  Greek  historians  and  geographers  occa- 
sionally record  observations  which  the  study  of  in- 
scriptions tends  to  confirm.  They  are  of  course  free 
from  the  animus  which  is  everywhere  apparent  in 
the  accounts  given  by  Israelites  of  these  matters. 

2.  Glass. — The  Semitic  religions  belong  to  the 
class  called  Polytheism.  Eespect  was  paid  to  a  variety 
of  objects,  real  or  imaginary,  supposed  to  be  possessed 
of  the  will  and  the  power  to  help  or  hinder  men's 
designs.  Beal  objects  thus  respected  might  be 
either  fetishes,  i.e.,  pieces  of  matter  to  which  this 
power  was  attributed,  being  detached  or  detachable, 
or  objects  in  nature  such  as  the  sun,  the  moon,  the 
earth,  a  mountain,  lake  or  tree.  The  belief  that  all 
these  are  possessed  of  volition  similar  to  our  own  is 
sometimes  called  animism,  and  the  race  have  eman- 
cipated themselves  from  it  by  a  process  similar  to 
that  by  which  children  emancipate  themselves  from 
the  notion  that  chairs  and  tables  possess  volition 
similar  to  their  own.  The  imaginary  object  of 
worship  is  the  conjectural  cause  of  visible  or  sen- 
sible operations.  If  the  plant,  e.g.,  be  not  thought 
to  have  a  will  of  its  own,  it  may  yet  be  supposed 
to  be  under  the  direction  of  a  being  similar  to  our- 
selves. The  natural  process  in  which  the  plant  is 
concerned  will  then  be  produced  by  a  quasi-human 
agency,  though  the  plant  itself  is  no  longer  credited 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  15 

with  intelligence  and  volition.  This  belief  is  inter- 
mediate between  the  naive  supposition  that  the  plant 
is  an  agent  and  the  scientific  belief  that  the  processes 
which  affect  the  plant  are  illustrations  of  laws.  Pro- 
gress consists  in  the  constant  substitution  of  the  notions 
of  force  and  law  for  agencies  with  human  wills. 

The  course  of  progress  does  not  ordinarily  do 
away  with  the  naive  beliefs  entirely.  The  Semitic 
religions  as  known  to  us  exhibit  therefore  side  by 
side  ideas  which  appear  to  date  from  very  different 
eras  of  human  progress.  That  objects  close  at  hand 
were  not  themselves  capable  of  volition  was  detected 
very  early ;  but  in  the  case  of  distant  objects,  the 
sun,  moon  and  stars,  it  took  longer  to  find  this  out. 
But  even  in  their  case  the  idea  that  they  were  agents 
was  presently  discarded  for  the  supposition  that 
they  were  the  possessions  or  the  abodes  of,  or  under 
the  direction  of,  agents  of  another  sort.  These  agents 
were  usually  thought  of  in  human  form,  it  being 
difficult  for  the  grown  man  to  associate  volition  with 
any  other  figure.  The  respect  and  worship  paid  to 
images  of  gods  was  therefore  ordinarily  symbolic ; 
just  as  in  some  countries  even  at  this  time  disrespect 
shown  to  the  image  of  an  emperor  is  a  case  of  Use 
majesU,  so  the  image  of  a  god  in  old  times  repre- 
sented the  god,  but  did  not  ordinarily  present  it. 
The  worship  of  images  is  traceable  to  the  same 
attitude  of  mind  which  induces  a  modern  crowd 
to  burn  an  image  of  a  leading  statesman  ;  which 
induces   a   modern  audience   to  hiss  an  actor  who 


16  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

performs  the  part  of  the  villain  of  the  piece.  The 
intellectual  calibre  of  each  worshipper  decided  how 
far  the  image  was  to  be  dissociated  from  the  being 
whom  it  was  intended  to  represent. 

Monotheism  is  reached  when  the  deity  is,  in  the 
first  place,  dissociated  from  connection  with  the  human 
figure,  and,  in   the   second   place,  dissociated   from 
particular    places    and    particular    functions,    from 
particular  interests  and  particular  spheres  of  activity. 
To   this   notion   the   Semites   (as   distinct  from  the 
Israelites)  did  not,  so  far  as  we  know,  attain.      But 
before  the  first  migration  from  Arabia  they  would 
seem  to  have  achieved  the  generalisation  that  there 
existed   a  class  of   beings  capable  of  harming  and 
helping,    of  which   each   member   might   be   called 
Ilu,  "god".    This  name,  indeed,  in  some  places  is 
a  proper  name  of  one  special  deity ;  but  in  various 
forms  it  appears  to  serve  as  the  class-name  in  all  the 
Semitic  languages.    Most  frequently  a  plural  of  it  is 
used  as  the  class-name ;  sometimes  the  plural  of  a 
plural.     Some  Semitic  communities  were  not  satisfied 
with  one  class  of  supernatural  beings,  but  evolved 
several  orders,  such  as  nymphs,  angels  and  demons. 
Those  who  were  born  in  these  societies  found  them- 
selves then  in  some  sort  of  relation  with  a  world  of 
imaginary  beings  as  well  as  with  the  material  world 
of  men  and  women.    Their  existence  was  an  assump- 
tion which  probably  no  one  called  in  question.    Each 
community  was  at  any  rate  for  a  time  connected  with 
some  one  deity ;  but  the  choice  of  that  deity  seems 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  17 

often  to  have  been  arbitrary.  As  has  been  seen,  the 
founders  of  a  nation  took  a  "  direction,"  and  for  such 
an  enterprise  the  conduct  of  a  god  was  indispensable  ; 
but  a  theory  that  the  earth  was  portioned  out  between 
different  gods  often  made  the  god  worshipped  by  the 
settlers  the  local  deity  rather  than  one  whom  they 
had  brought  with  them.  Agglomerations  of  families 
in  the  same  enterprise  led  to  the  simultaneous  exist- 
ence of  several  cults,  of  which,  however,  circumstances 
would  make  one  or  other  take  the  lead.  Hence  it 
happens  that  the  god  who  is  supreme  in  one  State 
is  often  found  occupying  an  honourable  position  in 
another.  Dagon  or  Dagan,  in  Eli's  time  chief  god 
of  the  Philistines  ;  Rimmon  or  Ramman,  in  Elisha's 
time  chief  god  of  the  Syrians  ;  Ashtoreth,  chief  god- 
dess of  the  Sidonians  ;  Chemosh,  chief  god  of  Moab, 
all  meet  us  in  other  communities,  some  at  a  very 
great  distance.  The  same  is  the  case  with  gods  whom 
the  antiquarians  specify  as  connected  with  special 
Arab  tribes.  This  is  due  to  the  gods  forming  a  com- 
munity, out  of  which  it  was  possible  to  select  special 
objects  of  reverence  without  offending  others.  The 
reputation  of  the  gods  also  rose  and  sank  with  that  of 
the  communities  associated  with  them.  Those  whom 
the  great  States  honoured  were  likely  to  find  devotees 
in  other  countries.  The  attachment  of  individual 
worshippers  often  brought  them  from  one  place  to 
another. 

3.  Names  of  Gods. — In  Greek  States,  it  is  well 
known,  each    member    of   the   community  was    the 
2 


18  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

devotee  of  a  number  of  gods  simultaneously,  because 
he  was  necessarily  a  member  of  a  number  of  societies 
(i.e.,  a  family,  a  tribe,  a  village  community,  and  a 
State),  each  one  of  which  was  presided  over  by  one 
or  more  gods.  Further,  the  males  and  females  of  a 
family  were  by  the  fact  of  their  sex  under  the  con- 
trol of  different  deities.  It  is  probable,  though  not 
perhaps  certain,  that  the  practice  of  the  Semitic 
States  was  similar.  What  is  clear  in  any  case  is 
that  the  names  of  gods  and  cities  were  sometimes 
the  same.  The  names  of  Tyre  and  Sidon  were  both 
names  of  gods ;  the  former  (Sur)  is  f  amiliar  in  the 
Old  Testament,  and  the  latter  figures  in  Punic  in- 
scriptions. In  several  cases,  too,  the  names  of  tribes, 
and  even  those  of  individuals,  were  identical  with  the 
names  of  gods.  A  Biblical  example  is  Gad,  the  name 
of  the  founder  of  a  tribe  and  also  of  an  idol  wor- 
shipped by  Israelitish  pagans.  The  word  signifies 
good  fortune,  and  corresponds  in  meaning  with  Sa'd, 
also  a  familiar  man's  name  and  the  name  of  a  god. 
Other  cases  are  Kusayy,  Kais  or  Kish,  Hijr,  Salman. 
Several  practices  were  probably  current  simultane- 
ously. Either  a  god  was  arbitrarily  given  a  name 
used  also  by  men — and,  as  we  have  seen,  the  differ- 
ence between  the  two  in  current  conceptions  was  apt 
to  be  slight  ;  or  the  name  which  a  tribe  had  got 
gave  rise  to  the  existence  of  a  god  who  represented 
its  unity. 

The   names  of   many  gods  appear,    therefore,  to 
admit  of  no  further  analysis.      Some  {e.g.,  Hobal, 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  19 

Ta'lab)  have  no  obvious  meaning,  though  cognate 
words  exist ;  others,  like  men's  names,  are  taken 
from  animals,  e.g.,  Nasi*  "vulture,"  Thaur  "ox  ". 

A  large  number  appear  to  mean  no  more  than 
"master,"  "lord,"  "king,"  "lady".  This  is  the 
case  with  the  familiar  Baal,  of  which  the  Assyrian 
form  Bel,  though  the  proper  name  of  a  god,  is  also 
applied  to  human  rulers.  Melech,  Molech,  Milcom, 
are  dialectic  varieties  of  a  word  meaning  "  king  "  or 
"possessor".  Adonis  (known  from  Greek  writers) 
is  the  North  Semitic  word  for  "  master  ".  Beltis 
(whence  Beltishazzar  is  derived)  is  merely  the  femi- 
nine of  Bel.  Sometimes  these  words  are  denned  by 
a  local  or  territorial  name  following  them.  This  is 
especially  the  case  in  South  Arabia  with  the  words 
Dhu  and  DJiat,  meaning  "  master  "  and  "  mistress  ". 
Baal  Lebanon,  "  Lord  of  Lebanon  "  ;  Baal  Sidon, 
"  Lord  of  Sidon  "  ;  Baalath  Gebal,  "  Lady  of  Gebal "  ; 
Dhu  Shara,  "  owner  of  Shara  " ;  Dhat  Hima,  Dhat 
Ba'dan,  etc.,  are  examples,  and  may  be  compared 
with  Baal  Shainaim  and  Malcath  Shamaim  (Jeremiah, 
vii.  18),  "Lord  of  Heaven"  and  "Queen  of  Heaven". 
In  origin  these  titles  are  sometimes  equivalent  to 
"  the  unknown  god  "  ;  that  the  place  or  region  must 
be  under  the  control  of  a  god  was  assumed,  but  the 
name  of  the  particular  god  was  never  ascertained. 
Thus  the  people  of  Byblus  seem  to  have  been  satis- 
fied with  "Lady  of  Gebal"  as  the  name  of  their 
goddess  from  the  time  of  the  Tell-el-Amarna  tablets 
to  the  fourth  century  B.C.     These  names  may,  how- 


20  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

ever,  sometimes  stand  as  more  respectful  modes  of 
address  than  a  proper  name  would  be  ;  and,  indeed, 
gods  who  have  proper  names  are  often  specialised 
as  possessors  of  certain  regions.  Finally,  through 
changes  in  language  these  names  have  a  tendency  to 
be  so  altered  as  to  assume  the  appearance  of  proper 
names :  Baasshamin  is  one  of  many  contractions 
used  for  the  name  of  the  Lord  of  Heaven,  in  which 
the  etymology  has  a  tendency  to  become  obscure, 
Dhu  Shara  was  known  to  the  Greeks  as  Dusares. 

Another  class  of  gods  are  named  from  qualities 
ascribed  to  them  :  Aziz,  "  mighty  "  ;  Al-Uzza,  "  the 
mightiest  lady";  Rimmon  for  Rahman,  "loving"; 
Rahum,  "  merciful  "  ;  Bashir,  "  bringer  of  good 
tidings";  II-  Makkah,  "  hearing  god";  perhaps  Sid, 
11  fishing  god,"  are  examples.  With  these  names 
we  may  compare  the  Roman  principle  of  inventing 
a  god  to  account  for  an  occurrence  or  an  operation. 

Assyrian  research  has  shown  that  the  names  of 
several  well  -  known  gods  were  of  foreign  origin, 
though  the  antiquarians  in  each  country  (their  philo- 
logical sense  being  less  keen  than  that  which  has 
since  been  developed)  were  often  misled  by  popular 
etymology.  Thus  the  Phoenicians  thought  that  the 
name  Dagan  meant  corn  god  ;  the  commentators  on 
1  Samuel,  even  in  ancient  times,  thought  it  meant 
fish  god  ;  but  the  word  is  now  said  to  be  Sumerian, 
and  to  be  unconnected  in  origin  with  these  ideas. 

Besides  the  gods  for  whom  the  name  "lord" 
served,  and  those  who  were  simply  called  "  god  "  or 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  21 

"object  of  worship"  (Arabic  mudan),  there  was 
probably  a  class  that  had  no  name,  being  thought 
of  collectively.  Such  were  the  household  gods  men- 
tioned in  the  Old  Testament  with  the  name  Tera- 
phim;  others  of  whom  we  occasionally  hear  were 
associated  with  Phoenician  gods,  whose  attendants 
they  were  thought  to  be. 

The  name  would  seem  to  have  been  of  very  varying 
importance.  Sometimes  one  god  is  said  to  bear  the 
name  of  another  ;  and  a  theory  of  which  we  find 
traces  was  that  a  god  would  only  answer  to  his  right 
name,  which,  therefore,  it  was  important  that  the 
worshipper  or  the  intermediary  should  know.  In 
most  States,  however,  the  god's  name  was  a  familiar 
one,  ordinarily  on  the  lips  of  his  worshippers,  just 
as  the  name  of  the  kinsf  would  be.  The  Israelitish 
objection  to  mentioning  the  names  of  foreign  deities 
is  based  on  a  doctrine  that  whatever  has  a  name  has 
an  existence.  To  mention  the  names  of  these  gods 
would  then  imply  that  they  were  personalities. 

$,  Mixture  of  Gods, — It  is  not  therefore  possible 
to  draw  up  a  complete  list  of  Semitic  gods,  or  even 
to  localise  many  of  the  cults  with  certainty.  Where 
they  are  named  after  places  the  local  name  has  often 
many  competitors,  out  of  which  it  is  difficult  to  name 
the  earliest.  Such  a  god  as  Dhu  Shara  must,  e.g., 
have  originally  been  connected  with  a  place  called 
Shara,  to  which  many  in  the  Arabic  geographies 
correspond  ;  he  figures  in  Arabic  history  as  the  god 
of  a  tribe  called  Daus,  and  in  inscriptions  as  the  chief 


22  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

god  of  the  Nabataeans  during  the  reign  of  Aretas  ; 
while  classical  authors  make  him  the  Arabic  Dionysus 
(or  wine  god),  worshipped  Jby  tho  Arabs  generally, 
with  a  seat  on  the  highest  peak  of  Arabia.  A  god 
Reshef,  known  chiefly  from  Cyprian  inscriptions,  was 
found  to  figure  among  four  North  Syrian  gods  in  an 
inscription  discovered  in  1890,  Fresh  finds  of  in- 
scriptions are  apt  to  reveal  fresh  names,  or  to  give 
evidence  of  the  worship  of  deities  at  a  great  distance 
from  the  places  with  which  we  are  accustomed  to 
associate  them.  The  Semitic  races,  moreover,  showed 
at  all  times  great  readiness  to  adopt  foreign  cults. 
It  is,  however,  likely  that  in  each  place  certain  cults 
enjoyed  temporary  popularity,  if  not  to  the  entire 
exclusion  of  others,  yet  in  such  a  degree  as  to  reduce 
the  others  to  obscurity.  Thus,  in  the  Aramaic  in- 
scription referred  to,  the  king  gives  the  title  "  my 
gods  "  to  the  four  Hadad,  Shams,  II,  and  Reshef ;  in 
Carthaginian  tablets  Baal  Hamman  and  Tanith, 
11  Face  of  Baal,"  enjoy  exclusive  consideration  ;  in 
Palmyrene  inscriptions  the  triad  of  the  sky  god,  the 
sun  god  and  the  moon  god  occupy  the  most  promin- 
ent position  ;  in  South  Arabian  inscriptions  the  gods 
*  Il-Makkih  and  Tha'lab,  the  former  ascribed  to  Harran, 
the  latter  to  Riyam,  occupy  chief  attention  ;  while 
different  Assyrian  kings  make  different  lists  of  gods 
under  whose  auspices  they  have  accomplished  their 
triumphs. 

We  could  not  without  a  complete  series  of  political 
and  family  records  state  with  certainty  how  these 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  23 

gods  got  together.  Earely  indeed  we  possess  docu- 
ments informing  us  when  a  cult  was  first  admitted 
to  a  community  ;  thus,  by  accident,  we  have  the  deed 
by  which  a  god  Selem  was  admitted  to  Tayma,  and 
also  learn  something  of  endeavours  made  to  bring 
Ishtar  to  Egypt.  Intermarriage  of  families  probably 
was  one  of  the  modes  in  which  different  cults  were 
brought  together  ;  moreover,  migrants  brought  their 
own  objects  of  worship,  which  they  durst  not  neglect, 
while  forced  to  adopt  those  of  the  places  whither  they 
went ;  and  where  cities  were  stormed  the  conquerors 
often  retained  the  old  worship,  supposing  that  the 
gods  had  not  departed,  but  merely  withdrawn  their 
favour  from  former  worshippers.  The  idea  that  one 
cult  excluded  another  seems  to  have  had  very  little 
recognition  except  among  the  Israelites. 

5.  Character  of  Gods. — Of  the  gods  naturally 
nothing  was  actually  known.  But  where  the  deity 
was  an  object  in  nature,  such  as  the  sun,  the  moon, 
the  sky,  a  mountain,  a  river,  the  sea,  mythical  ex- 
planations were  given  of  the  phenomena  connected 
therewith  ;  whence  it  comes  that  we  find  in  very 
different  parts  of  the  world  myths,  of  which  the 
object  is  clearly  to  account  for  earthquakes,  eclipses, 
droughts,  etc.  Moreover,  running  water  and  fire 
present  an  appearance  of  life  and  volition  which 
readily  gives  rise  to  stories  in  which  they  figure  as 
persons.  When  the  old  explanations  of  the  physical 
phenomena  have  been  outgrown,  owing  to  observa- 
tion and  discovery,  the  myths  survive  as  narratives. 


24  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

These  then  form  the  framework  of  a  mythology  into 
which  in  advanced  communities,  such  as  those  of 
Phoenicia  and  Assyria,  the  inventions  of  poets  and 
the  deductions  of  antiquarians  are  woven. 

Many  tales  that  figured  in  these  mythologies  were 
merely  efforts  of  the  imagination  ;  curiosity,  the  desire 
to  know  more  about  interesting  characters,  has  en- 
riched the  history  of  most  nations.  But  much  is  also 
due  to  antiquarian  speculations.  To  them  it  is  due 
thab  various  gods  and  goddesses  are  identified  with 
those  popular  objects  of  reverence,  the  sun,  the  moon 
and  the  sky,  without  having  originally  had  any 
connection  with  them. 

Moreover  where  a  number  of  these  beings  were 
worshipped  simultaneously,  the  antiquarians  endeav- 
oured to  discover  their  sex,  and  to  invent  relation- 
ships ;  they  discovered  that  gods  and  goddesses  stood 
to  each  other  in  such  relations  as  father  and  son, 
husband  and  wife,  etc.  In  Assyria  Asshur  counted 
as  father  of  the  gods,  and  Ishtar  as  their  mother. 
In  Aramaic  cities  Al-lat  was  called  the  mother  of  the 
gods.  In  Arabia  it  is  asserted  there  were  those  who 
believed  the  gods  to  be  all  daughters  of  Allah.  There 
is  also  a  tendency  to  provide  the  gods  and  goddesses 
with  suitable  partners,  whence  Beltis  springs  up  by 
the  side  of  Bel,  and  perhaps  Ashtoreth  by  the  side  of 
Athtar.  Grounds  for  filiation  are  to  be  found  in 
myths,  whence  the  sun  god  is  made  son  of  the  moon 
god,  owing  to  the  theory  that  night  preceded  day. 
To  antiquarian  research  it  is  probably  due  that  on 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  25 

the  one  hand  gods  are  sometimes  identified  and  fused 
in  a  double  name,  e.g.,  Ashtoreth  Chemosh,  Eshmun 
Melkarth,  Eshmun  Ashtoreth,  Hadad  Rimmon,  per- 
haps Baal  Gad  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  the  same 
name  is  broken  up  into  a  variety  of  identities,  e.g., 
Ishtar  of  Nineveh  and  Ishtar  of  Arbail,  who  figure 
side  by  side  in  inscriptions  ;  such  local  names  as 
Anathoth,  the  "  Anaths,"  are  also  to  be  explained  as 
due  to  the  worship  of  a  number  of  forms  of  the 
goddess  Anath  simultaneously.  A  more  advanced 
theology  represented  one  god  as  a  form  of  another  ; 
in  Carthaginian  inscriptions  a  goddess  is  regularly 
described  as  Baal's  face,  and  some  similar  designa- 
tions are  found  elsewhere. 

The  discrimination  of  functions  as  between  different 
gods  probably  belonged  to  the  theology  of  the  learned, 
rather  than  to  the  popular  religion.  The  god  of  a 
community  had  to  provide  it  with  the  things  of  which 
it  stood  in  need;  and  these  needs  were  ordinarily 
simple — male  children,  various  forms  of  produce, 
protection  and  recovery  from  disease,  victory  over 
enemies.  For  all  these  objects  the  same  gods  are 
supplicated  and  thanked.  It  was  when  wants  be- 
came more  complicated  and  observation  more  accur- 
ate that  the  same  persons  applied  to  different  gods 
for  different  things.  The  fact  of  such  specialisation 
seems  ordinarily  to  betray  foreign  influence.  Thus 
an  inscription  in  which  Eshmun  is  described  as  the 
healing  god,  and  one  in  which  Anath  is  called  the 
might  of  life,  and  one  in  which  Melkarth  is  described 


26  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

as  a  leader  of  emigrants,  have  each  a  Greek  translation 
attached  to  them.  In  Assyria,  where  considerable 
specialisation  is  discernible,  the  influence  of  a  foreign 
priesthood  is  unquestionable.  Nevertheless  even 
there  (as  in  Greece)  it  was  difficult  to  confine  the 
gods  to  their  functions.  When  a  man  desired  any- 
thing, almost  any  god  could  in  theory  provide  it. 

As  has  been  seen,  the  ordinary  trend  of  Semitic 
religion  was  from  nature- worship  to  anthropomorph- 
ism. A  god,  having  ceased  to  be  identical  with  a 
mountain,  a  tree,  the  sun,  etc.,  was  represented  by 
an  image  ;  and  a  system  of  distinguishing  symbols 
was  introduced  whereby  the  image  of  one  god  might 
be  known  from  that  of  another.  This  idea  may  have 
come  from  Egypt,  whence  the  Phoenicians  derived 
much,  but  is  in  itself  obvious  enough.  In  some 
Syrian  States  the  triad  of  gods  representing  the  sky, 
sun  and  moon,  are  distinguished  by  a  calathus,  a 
disc  of  rays  and  a  couple  of  horns  respectively.  The 
story  of  Dagon  (1  Samuel  v.)  shows  that  he  was 
represented  in  human  form  ;  and  representations  of 
the  god  Reshef  on  Phoenician  gems  take  human 
form  also  with  distinctive  characteristics.  Where 
gods  were  represented  otherwise  (as  Hamman  by 
two  columns),  the  difficulty  of  finding  artists  capable 
of  making  a  statue  may  have  sometimes  been  the 
reason;  whereas  in  other  cases  "stones  that  fell 
from  heaven  "  would  be  retained  as  representations 
of  a  deity  after  they  had  ceased  to  be  worshipped  as 
gods.     The  prophetic  assertion  that  the  value  of  the 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  27 

material  whence  the  image  was  made  varied  with 
the  means  of  the  worshipper  may  be  fully  credited. 

Where,  as  was  often  the  case  in  Assyria,  represen- 
tations were  made  in  stone  of  malignant  beings,  it 
has  been  suggested  that  the  purpose  was  to  confine 
the  fiend  to  the  stone,  to  fix  him  in  it  so  that  he 
could  not  move.  What  was  the  underlying  idea  in 
the  case  of  images  of  animals,  where  such  were  made 
to  fill  shrines,  is  not  so  clear. 

6.  Duties  towards  Gods. — The  first  assumption 
with  regard  to  the  gods  was  that  they  required  to  be 
propitiated.  This  was  to  be  accomplished  by  the  same 
means  as  were  shown  by  experience  to  be  effective 
in  propitiating  men — except,  indeed,  where  an  animal 
was  worshipped,  whose  wants  might  be  studied. 
The  great  bulk  of  religious  practices  may  be  traced 
to  the  belief  that  the  god  wants  what  man  wants. 
The  most  universal  want  being  food  and  drink,  these 
were  everywhere  supplied  them  in  the  form  of  sac- 
rifice and  libation.  Eesidences  or  shelters  were 
provided  for  them  when  desirable.  Oil  was  poured 
on  their  heads.  Incense  was  burned  for  them  to 
smell :  in  some  communities  they  were  provided  with 
human  consorts.  Their  good-will  was  also  sought 
by  demonstrations  of  affection  :  in  one  Arabian  com- 
munity those  who  went  foraging  stroked  the  image 
at  starting  and  on  returning  ;  and  the  kissing  of 
images  was  a  common  practice.  Gifts  similar  to 
those  used  in  propitiating  princes  were  lavished  on 
them.     Where   literature    and    art   flourished   they 


28  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

were  honoured  with  encomiums ;  entertainments 
were  got  up  for  their  amusement.  Flattery  was 
bestowed  ou  them  similar  to  that  bestowed  on 
princes.  In  many  States  their  services  were  com- 
memorated by  public  testimonials,  in  the  form  of 
tablets  or  pillars  similar  to  those  which  recorded  the 
services  of  men, 

There  was,  therefore,  a  tendency  to  make  the  gods 
the  replica  of  the  kings,  and  we  possess  not  a  few 
tablets  in  which  the  devotee  mentions  the  god  and 
the  king  side  by  side,  and  bestows  on  both  the  same 
or  similar  attributes.  Where  the  form  of  government 
known  as  Oriental  despotism  was  developed,  the 
god  was  regarded  as  the  king's  god  ;  the  subject  in 
speaking  of  the  god  called  him  the  god  of  my  lord. 
Yet  the  identification  of  the  two,  so  common  in 
Western  States,  seems  so  far  as  the  inscriptions 
guide  us  to  have  made  little  way  with  the  Semites. 
Where  kings  are  called  gods,  they  are  Greek  or 
Eoman  monarchs.  The  King  of  Byblus  (fifth 
century  b.c.)  declares  that  the  Lady  of  Byblus  had 
"  made  him "  king,  and  desires  her  to  give  him 
favour  in  the  eyes  of  gods  and  men.  In  the 
oligarchic  States  of  South  Arabia  clients  request  the 
god  to  give  them  favour  in  the  eyes  of  the  ruling 
caste.  But  whereas  the  practices  of  religion  are 
largely  based  on  primitive  wants,  as  religion  pro- 
gressed, it  seems  certain  that  men  regularly  argued 
from  the  king's  desires  to  the  god's  desires.  That  a 
god  was  pleased  by  flattery  could  only  be  known  by 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  29 

experience  in  a  fairly  developed  civilisation,  where 
the  desire  for  "  the  lion's  share  "  of  the  food  had  long- 
given  way  to,  or  at  least  been  associated  with,  the 
desire  for  loftier  pleasures.  The  nature  of  the 
worship  was  also  constantly  regulated  by  the  ideas  of 
the  head  of  the  State,  who  would  naturally  suppose 
his  god  to  have  the  same  tastes  as  himself.  We 
have  in  judging  the  theories  that  resulted  to  re- 
member that  our  ideas  of  virtue  and  decorum  are 
the  result  of  an  infinite  series  of  experiments,  and 
should  not  be  surprised  at  the  theories  of  what  a 
god  wished  occasionally  producing  rites  which  seem 
revolting  and  humiliating  to  the  deity. 

The  gratification  of  the  wants  of  the  gods  may  be 
treated  in  the  following  order :  (a)  Eesidences ;  (b) 
Gifts;  (c)  Servants;  (d)  Food;  (e)  Sympathy;  (/) 
Entertainment. 

(a)  Residences  of  the  Gods. — Where  the  god  was 
an  object  in  nature,  such  as  a  rock  or  a  tree,  naturally 
housing  him  was  out  of  the  question.  Such  a  god 
could  be  visited,  and  his  honours  paid  him  where  he 
stood.  And  the  same  could  be  done  with  animals 
whose  haunts  would  be  known.  Where  a  heavenly 
body  was  worshipped,  that,  too,  could  not  be  housed, 
but  it  might  be  approached  from  the  nearest  point ; 
and  the  practice  of  offering  sacrifices  on  heights  (As- 
syrian and  Hebrew  Bamah)  or  mountain-tops  is  prob- 
ably due  to  this  notion.  In  the  case  of  the  latter 
the  belief  that  meteoric  gods  actually  dwelt  on  them 
was  widely  spread,  owing  to  the  phenomena  of  clouds 


30  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

and  winds  connected  with  them ;  where  a  mountain 
bears  a  divine  name,  such  as  Sinai  or  Nebo,  there  is 
the  vague  confusion  between  the  dwelling-place  and 
the  embodiment  of  the  god  to  which  attention  has 
already  been  called.  Worship  on  these  "  high-places  " 
survived,  as  we  know,  in  Israelitish  communities  long 
after  the  endeavour  to  centralise  worship  at  Jerusalem 
had  been  repeatedly  made. 

Where  the  god  was  thought  of  apart  from  objects 
in  nature,  and  was  regarded  as  a  man,  whether  re- 
presented by  a  symbol  or  not,  he  needed  a  residence. 
Of  tents  for  gods  we  read  in  the  reproaches  of  Micah, 
where  the  Israelites  are  taunted  with  carrying  the 
tents  of  their  gods  about  with  them  in  the  desert ;  and 
the  Tabernacle  was  probably  no  great  innovation  in 
religious  practice.  A  tent  has  the  advantage  of  en- 
abling vessels  of  all  sorts  to  be  reserved  for  special 
uses,  so  that  when  the  tent  is  pitched  they  can  be 
deposited  in  their  places. 

Of  temples  set  up  by  stationary  communities  there 
must  have  been  many  sorts.  A  word  rendered 
11  grove  "  in  the  Authorised  Version  signifies  in  As- 
syrian any  sacred  place,  often,  doubtless,  a  shrine  for 
the  shelter  of  the  god  on  the  roadside.  The  sole 
surviving  specimen  of  a  Semitic  temple,  the  Kaabah 
at  Meccah,  is  not  much  more  elaborate.  It  is  a  cubic 
shed  representing  a  primitive  form  of  architecture. 
In  one  of  the  walls  there  is  inserted  the  black  stone, 
an  object  of  veneration,  which,  however,  does  not 
appear   to   have   been   the   original  nucleus  of   the 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  31 

temple.  It  was  rather  a  shelter  for  one  or  more 
gods :  in  Mohammed's  time,  if  tradition  may  be 
trusted,  for  as  many  as  365.  The  ceremonies  of  the 
pilgrimage,  however,  show  that  many  gods  were  still 
thought  to  reside  on  the  neighbouring  mountains. 

The  style  of  the  temples,  of  course,  varied  with 
the  wealth  and  artistic  ideas  of  the  community.  The 
temples  seem  ordinarily  to  have  been  separate,  even 
different  forms  of  the  same  god  having  separate 
houses.  Thus  at  Sidon  the  same  royal  couple  built 
temples  to  Ashtoreth  and  to  Ashtoreth  "name  of 
Baal  ".  An  inscription  records  the  existence  of  three 
temples  on  the  small  island  of  Gaulus  near  Malta. 
Where  gods  were  thought  to  be  closely  connected, 
as,  e.g.,  by  the  marital  relation,  they  sometimes 
shared  a  temple. 

Every  temple  that  was  more  than  a  shrine  prob- 
ably had  a  sanctuary  containing  the  God's  image  ; 
but  it  is  probable  that  in  large  cities  they  also  had 
rooms  which  would  serve  for  public  meetings.  The 
story  of  the  Temple  of  Dagon  at  Gaza  (Judges 
xvi.  21-30)  suggests  a  building  similar  to  a  modern 
mosque.  Inscriptions  remain  telling  of  porches,  orna- 
mental staircases  and  avenues  of  pillars  attached  to 
temples  of  the  sun  and  other  deities.  The  temples 
of  some  of  the  great  Semitic  cities  were  as  famous  in 
their  day  as  are  the  cathedrals  of  Paris,  Milan  and 
Cologne  now. 

Even  in  settled  communities  some  considerable 
amount  of  worship  seems  to  have  been  carried  on 


32  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

in  the  open  air.  Since  men  of  wealth  had  parks  it 
was  natural  that  the  gods  should  have  them  also. 
Moreover,  the  sacred  tree  is  not  unfrequently  men- 
tioned, whether  as  an  embodiment  of  a  deity  or  as  a 
natural  residence  for  one. 

It  is  doubtless  true  that  the  sacred  enclosure 
existed  before  the  idea  of  lodging  gods  in  houses, 
and  lasted  on  after  that  usage  had  been  developed. 
The  idea  of  private  ownership  as  connected  with 
that  sort  of  territory  comes  in  rather  late  ;  the 
words  used  of  such  sacred  land  are  chiefly  negative 
words,  such  as  imply  that  mankind  are  kept  off, 
rather  than  that  the  gods  are  the  owners.  Where 
such  sacred  territory  was  employed  for  residence 
by  tribes  and  communities,  certain  restrictions  on 
the  free  use  of  it  ordinarily  continued  in  vogue ; 
certain  acts  might  not  be  performed  by  those  who 
were  on  the  territory,  or  persons  in  certain  con- 
ditions had  to  be  driven  off  it.  The  treatment 
of  territory  thus  was  in  ordinary  cases  the  result 
of  circumstances ;  the  fact  of  its  being  the  resi- 
dence of  a  supernatural  power  would  evince  itself 
in  some  fashion  obvious  to  the  many  or  the  few ; 
and  the  prohibition  connected  therewith  would  be 
a  measure  of  self-protection  against  the  resulting 
danger  ;  the  place  had  (to  borrow  Frazer's  metaphor) 
to  be  insulated.  Many  of  Frazer's  fascinating  pages 
are  occupied  with  the  analysis  of  this  notion  of 
11  sanctity,"  which  in  many  primitive  religions  causes 
the  extremes  of  holiness  and  uncleanness  to  have 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  33 

much  in  common.  The  object  is  in  either  case 
supposed  to  be  charged  with  a  sort  of  electricity, 
which  is  fraught  with  danger  to  him  who  approaches. 
The  house  of  the  god  would  doubtless  be  often  built 
on  land  which  was  supposed  to  be  blessed  with  his 
presence  ;  and,  indeed,  the  worshipper  would  not  have 
been  in  ordinary  cases  entitled  to  give  a  god  a 
house  without  some  security  that  the  site  would  be 
a  pleasing  one.  Of  the  orientation'  of  temples  we 
probably  have  no  records  ;  yet  it  is  unlikely  that 
a  matter  of  such  importance  went  without  rules  ; 
and  the  Arabic  words  connected  with  orientation  in 
mosques  seem  to  be  ancient. 

(b)  Gifts  to  Gods. — In  a  temple,  as  a  god's  residence, 
his  goods  were  naturally,  so  far  as  possible,  stored. 
These  consisted  of  gifts,  of  which  there  might  be  any 
sort.  Inscriptions  belonging  to  different  States  record 
offerings  of  metallic  vessels,  such  as  cups  and  censers, 
some  of  these  being  the  first  products  of  factories,  or 
made  out  of  the  spoils  of  war.  Often,  however,  the 
gifts  were  of  a  sort  which  did  not  admit  of  such 
treatment.  Such  were  lands,  trees,  flocks  and  herds. 
An  inscription  from  Larnaka  in  Cyprus  records  a  gift 
of  "  beasts  roaming  at  large  at  the  extremity  of  the 
lands  of  Larnak  "  ;  another  (the  stone  of  Tayma) 
records  a  gift  of  a  number  of  date-trees  to  a  new 
arrival.  Gifts  of  furniture  in  the  shape  of  thrones  and 
of  statues  were  common.  It  is  probable  therefore  that 
the  temples  came  to  serve  as  treasuries  or  banks,  as 
was  the  case  in  the  Greek  States,  and  even  now  in 
3 


34  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

some  Mohammedan  countries,  and  in  Carthage  the 
State  archives  were  stored  in  one  of  them. 

Presents  of  slaves  are  likely  to  have  been  common. 
A  not  unfrequent  type  of  inscription  in  South  Arabia 
records  the  devotion  by  a  man  of  himself  and  all  his 
goods,  and  his  family,  or  tribe,  and  all  their  goods  to 
a  god.  The  text  that  goes  farthest  in  this  matter  is 
one  from  Yemen  :  "  Yuhain,  son  of  Ishmael,^King  of 
the  Samai,  dedicated  to  Ta'lab  himself,  his  sons  Zaid 
and  Zaidil,  all  his  other  children,  his  goods  and  his 
fortress  Ya'ud,  his  estate  Ta'alluk,  and  all  his  goods 
and  the  goods  of  his  father  Ishmael,  the  goods,  lands, 
houses,  etc.,  of  his  grandfather  Samahafik,  whether 
in  town  or  country,"  etc.  The  import  of  a  gift  on 
this  scale  is  not  clear  ;  it  is  probable  that  by  such  an 
act  a  god  was  made  protector  of  the  common  goods, 
or  the  owners  were  secured  from  expropriation.  The 
South  Arabian  inscriptions  record  many  offerings 
which  were  not  deposited  in  temples  :  statues  especially 
that  were  set  up  within  fortresses,  but  apparently  not 
in  any  sacred  place. 

Gifts  of  clothing  and  ornaments,  such  as  those  re- 
corded in  Exodus,  were  probably  common.  Arabic 
tradition  tells  of  earrings  and  bracelets  put  on  images  ; 
and  the  covering  of  the  Ka'bah,  still  renewed  yearly, 
has  been  compared  to  the  adornment  of  a  bride.  We 
need  scarcely  doubt  that  Ashtoreth,  like  Athene,  de- 
sired rich  and  gay  clothing.  Owing  to  the  perishable 
nature  of  this  sort  of  gift  it  is  not  surprising  that  few 
records  of  it  survive. 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  35 

In  some  communities  a  definite  share  of  the  produce 
was  bestowed  on  the  god,  or,  if  tradition  is  to  be 
believed,  portions  were  assigned  different  gods  by 
lot. 

The  votive  tablets,  as  a  rule,  record  the  purpose 
of  these  gifts.  They  are  either  thankofferings  for 
assistance  rendered  in  war,  agriculture,  or  other  daily 
occupation  ;  or  they  are  propitiatory,  usually  for  the 
life  oi  the  giver  and  his  children.  In  Phoenician 
communities  the  formula  ordinarily  runs  "  because 
he  (or  she)  heard  his  voice  and  answered  him,"  or, 
"  heard  his  voice  and  may  she  bless  ".  The  South 
Arabian  tablets  go  more  fully  into  details  of  the 
nature  of  the  service,  and  the  occasion  on  which 
it  was  rendered.  They  also  end  often  with  prayers 
for  the  continuation  of  such  favours.  Pleasant 
relations  between  clients  and  their  patrons  are  a 
familiar  request  in  these  tablet-s.  Similarly  kings 
hope  to  secure  the  good- will  of  their  subjects  by  gifts 
to  the  national  gods. 

Those  Semitic  proper  names  of  which  one  element 
is  a  divine  name  often  throw  light  on  the  services 
which  the  gods  were  supposed  to  render  in  return. 
Names  meaning  "  Whom  Baal  delivered,"  or  ''re- 
deemed," are  no  less  common  than  "  Whom  Baal," 
or  some  other  god,  "gave".  The  operation  to 
which  reference  is  made  in  the  former  case  is  that 
of  being  safely  delivered,  to  which  the  Psalms  make 
frequent  allusion;  and  the  word  "  redeemed  "  implies 
some  notion,  like  that  of   the   Persians,  that  some 


S6  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

death-power  would,  but  for  the  intervention  of  the 
deity,  have  seized  the  child. 

(c)  Servants  of  the  Gods. — The  inscriptions  and 
the  tradition  together  help  us  to  trace  the  existence 
and  nature  of  the  priesthood  with  fair  certainty. 
The  Semitic  languages  have  no  one  word  for  priest  ; 
the  word  used  in  the  Bible  and  in  Canaanitish  com- 
munities means  in  Arabic* 'soothsayer"  ;  the  Aramaic 
word  employed  in  the  Bible  for  pagan  priest  appears 
to  be  Indo-Germanic  in  origin  ;  and  South  Arabia  and 
Assyria  have  words  of  their  own.  The  word  Levite 
appears  to  mean  originally  "one  who  is  attached"  : 
the  Arabic  words  for  freedman  (one  attached  to  a 
master)  and  saint  (one  attached  to  God)  come  from 
the  same  stem. 

It  is  clear,  therefore,  that  the  origin  of  priesthood 
in  different  communities  was  different.  In  early 
societies  where  the  god  was  a  familiar  object,  and, 
indeed,  one  of  the  family,  there  was  clearly  no  occa- 
sion for  any  intermediary.  When  once  a  god  was 
housed,  the  need  for  some  one  to  look  after  his  house 
became  apparent.  At  the  Temple  of  Meccah,  which 
probably  represents  very  early  Semitic  ideas,  we  find 
temple-keepers.  The  office  was  in  Mohammed's  time 
honourable,  though  probably  unpaid,  and  belonged 
by  right  to  a  certain  family.  Still  more  were  such 
officials  required  where  the  community  carried  about 
a  tent ;  in  both  these  cases  the  development  of  the 
priesthood  may  be  considered  part  of  the  specialisa- 
tion of  industry. 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  37 

In  the  Larnaka  tables  the  sacrificers  are  mentioned 
as  a  separate  class ;  in  the  Marseilles  tariff  it  is  the 
priest  who  offers  the  sacrifice,  and  in  developed  States 
the  offering  of  sacrifice  was  the  business  of  a  special 
minister.  In  the  primitive  community  the  pater- 
familias would  be  able  to  do  all  that  was  required ; 
and  we  do  not  know  in  how  many  States  the 
slaughter  of  any  animal  was  (as  with  Jews  and 
Mohammedans  still)  a  religious  rite.  Traditions, 
however,  quickly  accumulate  both  as  to  the  parts 
of  the  animal  which  the  god  likes  and  as  to  the 
right  manner  of  slaughtering  ;  and  special  knowledge 
is  invariably  confined  to  classes  or  castes. 

The  priests  in  North  Semitic  communities  are  called 
(as  we  have  seen)  by  a  word  which  means  "  augur," 
and  in  the  Israelitish  society  the  only  legitimate  form 
of  augury  was  confined  to  the  priests.  In  the  early 
societies  it  is  probable  that  this  gift  (in  some  form  or 
other)  was  possessed  by  individuals,  who  in  time 
made  it  a  hereditary  profession.  The  person  who 
can  understand  the  language  of  the  gods  is  the 
fittest  person  to  serve  as  an  intermediary  on  all 
occasions  ;  whence  we  see  that  the  professions  of 
priest  and  prophet  only  separate  when  the  former 
represents  a  privileged  corporation.  In  most  cults, 
it  would  appear,  the  appearance  of  the  entrails  of 
the  animal  gave  some  account  of  the  disposition  of 
the  god. 

Finally,  there  were  in  different  places  persons  wTho 
were  devoted  by  their  parents  to  the  service  of  some 


38  KELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

god,  or  who  devoted  themselves.  The  devotion  might 
be  indicated  by  giving  the  child  in  adoption  to  a  god, 
whence  we  get  such  names  as  Ben-Hadad,  "  son  of 
the  god  Hadad,"  and  Benchodesh,  "son  of  the  new 
moon";  or  it  might  mean  lifelong  exercise  of  a 
profession.  Various  modes  in  which  attachment  to 
a  god  might  be  symbolised  are  mentioned  casually 
in  the  Old  Testament ;  some  mark  on  the  body, 
especially  letting  the  hair  grow  long  or  cutting  it 
off,  tattooing,  etc.,  served  as  a  common  badge. 

In  many  States  the  king  was  ex  officio  priest  of  the 
national  god  ;  just  as  the  King  of  Salem  in  Abraham's 
time  was  priest  of  El  Elyon,  so  kings  of  Sidon  call 
themselves  priests  of  Ashtoreth,  and  their  queens 
her  priestesses  ;  and  in  South  Arabia  the  chiefs  of  a 
tribe  sometimes  style  themselves  also  priests  of  a 
sanctuary.  This  title  in  developed  communities 
must  have  implied  little  more  than  honorary  duties  ; 
the  king  would  have  neither  time  nor  taste  to  do  the 
drudgery  connected  with  a  popular  worship.  This 
was  done  by  a  permanent  staff  of  officials,  such 
as  are  in  some  Carthaginian  inscriptions  styled  the 
people  or  the  populace  either  of  a  god  or  of  a  temple. 
We  do  not  know  whether  there  was  any  difference 
between  these  two  classes  ;  the  same  appears  in  the 
designations  of  the  slaves,  who  are  at  times  slaves 
of  a  god,  at  others  of  a  god's  house.  The  "  Larnaka 
tables,"  some  fragments  of  a  treasury  book  connected 
with  the  worship  at  Larnaka,  give  the  names  of  a 
variety  of   officers.      There  were   gate-keepers   and 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  39 

curtain  -  keepers,  singers  male  and  female,  young 
men  and  maidens,  barbers,  sacrificers,  masons  and 
builders,  besides  others  whose  duties  may  be  passed 
over.  Carthaginian  tablets  repeatedly  mention  "  bar- 
bers of  the  gods,"  whose  duties  were  probably  to 
keep  the  priests  shaven  ;  one  mentions  a  man  whose 
duty  was  to  light  the  sacred  lamps.  Some  of  these 
duties  would  be  performed  by  slaves,  others  by 
citizens.  It  is  probable  that  these  tables  give  a 
fair  idea  of  the  quantity  of  the  staff  which  a  great 
Semitic  temple  was  likely  to  require. 

The  position  of  the  priest  as  the  god's  vicar  is 
one  of  which  many  cults  show  illustrations,  though 
it  may  not  everywhere  have  been  a  developed  theory. 
Each  year  of  accumulated  experience  in  a  quiet  State 
rendered  the  discharge  of  duties  by  the  gods  them- 
selves less  and  less  possible  ;  the  greater  the  average 
intelligence  the  more  had  the  difficulties  connected 
with  the  assumption  of  their  existence  to  be  artificially 
veiled.  It  is  probable  that  in  the  obscene  practices 
connected  with  several  worships  the  worshippers 
were  taking  the  place  of  gods,  as  in  the  Baccha- 
nalian orgies  the  Bacchants  seem  to  have  taken 
the  name  of  their  chief.  In  the  case  of  the  ordinary 
sacrifice  the  parts  consumed  by  the  priest  were, 
indeed,  properly  speaking,  perquisites  ;  i.e.,  portions 
given  in  payment  for  a  definite  service.  Still  the 
difference  between  the  part  given  to  the  god  and 
that  given  to  his  minister  had  a  tendency  to 
evanesce.     Should  doubts  suggest  themselves  as  to 


40  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

the  existence  of  the  god — and  that  these  were  never 
present  seems  unlikely  —  the  priest  was  there  to 
quell  them.  He  had  personal  acquaintance  with  the 
god  and  could  testify.  If  the  ordinary  worshipper 
wished  to  obtain  a  favour  from  the  god,  the  priest 
introduced  him,  he  served  as  the  god's  chamberlain 
or  vizier.  We  do  not  know  how  far  in  the  ad- 
vanced communities  the  gods  ever  came  to  be  a 
political  fiction,  but  the  readiness  with  which  foreign 
worships  were  adopted  seems  to  testify  to  a  tendency 
in  places  that  way. 

The  ministers  were  in  part  supported  by  the  temple 
revenues,  where  land  or  other  property  had  been 
settled  on  the  temple;  but  where  they  discharged 
a  duty  for  the  benefit  of  an  individual,  they  were 
paid  by  a  commission,  except  in  the  case  of  the  very 
poor.  Thus  we  learn  from  a  series  of  temple  tariffs 
belonging  to  the  Carthaginian  temples  that  the  com- 
mission of  the  priest  varied  with  the  value  of  the 
sacrifice,  and  consisted  partly  in  a  payment  of  money 
and  partly  in  meat ;  the  sin  of  Eli's  sons,  it  will  be 
remembered,  consisted  in  part  in  requiring  an  im- 
proper commission.  The  nature  of  the  -perquisite 
varied  with  the  custom  of  different  societies.  The 
practice  of  reserving  either  the  first-fruits  or  a 
definite  proportion  of  the  produce  for  the  use  of  the 
gods  is  occasionally  attested  by  inscriptions.  Still 
in  many  places  cults  were  in  the  hands  of  wealthy 
land-owners  or  merchants  who  gained  in  status  by 
possessing  them.     We  are  told  that  at  Meccah  the 


SEMITIC  KELIGIONS  41 

right  of  entertaining  strangers  who  came  for  the 
pilgrimage  was  regarded  as  a  valuable  privilege. 
Those  who  built  temples  out  of  their  own  means 
probably  left  the  duty  of  keeping  them  up  to  their 
descendants  ;  and  the  retention  of  the  cult  within  the 
family  would  often  bring  power  and  influence  that 
indemnified  them  for  the  expense. 

(d)  Food  of  the  Gods. — Much  has  been  written 
about  the  origin  of  the  Semitic  sacrifice,  and  ingeni- 
ous theories  of  its  origin  have  been  propounded. 
Whether  these  be  correct  or  not,  they  go  back  to  a 
period  far  earlier  than  the  separation  of  the  Semitic 
communities,  and  farther  than  it  is  possible  to  trace 
them.  They  are  also  based  to  some  extent  on  un- 
certain etymologies  and  untrustworthy  analogies. 
Even  if  these  theories  be  historically  correct,  the 
consciousness  of  the  original  meaning  of  the  sacri- 
fices had  been  lost  long  before  the  time  at  which  we 
become  acquainted  with  the  Semitic  States. 

At  this  time  the  sacrifice  represents  the  operation 
of  a  variety  of  instincts.  One  is  the  survival  of 
the  supposition  that  the  god  enjoys  what  man  en- 
joys, and  requires  meals  at  the  same  times  as  man. 
This  doctrine  accounts  for  the  daily  sacrifices.  The 
nature  of  the  animal  offered  was  settled  by  usage, 
dictated  originally  by  geographical  and  climatic  con- 
siderations. Thus  in  Arabia  the  camel  was  a  fav- 
ourite sacrifice,  whereas  in  the  Carthaginian  tariffs 
the  camel  does  not  figure.  In  origin  this  fact  must 
be  due  to  the  importance  of  the  camel  in  Arabia, 


42  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

owing  to  its  suitability  to  the  conditions  of  that 
country ;  and  similar  causes  dictated  other  practices. 
The  real  cause  escapes  the  early  speculators,  in 
whose  opinion  a  custom  exists  because  it  has  been 
established  by  a  legislator,  not  because  necessity  and 
accident  have  led  up  to  it. 

For  several  Semitic  communities  the  practice  of 
human  sacrifice  is  attested,  and  this  may  date  from 
a  period  of  cannibalism,  when  human  flesh  was 
commonly  eaten ;  but  more  often  it  seems  to  have  a 
very  different  origin,  and  to  be  more  akin  to  the 
conception  of  sacrifice  as  handing  over  to  god  a  sub- 
stitute for  oneself.  Frazer  has  shown  that  in  some 
primitive  communities  the  king  has  to  be  killed  when 
in  the  prime  of  life,  lest  the  power  that  supports  the 
State  grow  feeble,  and  that  in  course  of  time  this 
necessity  is  evaded,  first  by  the  substitution  of  the 
king's  nearest  relative,  presently  by  some  victim 
more  distant  and  less  precious.  Human  sacrifice  in 
this  case  would  only  by  a  confusion  of  ideas  be  re- 
garded as  the  food  of  the  gods. 

But  a  third  notion,  which  is  familiar  in  all  com- 
munities, is  that  of  persuading  the  god  by  a  present 
to  do  what  one  desires.  In  this  case  the  difficulty 
lies  in  the  choice  of  a  gift  and  in  finding  a  process  by 
which  the  god  is  to  get  hold  of  it.  Sending  an 
animal  away  into  the  wilderness  and  consuming  it 
by  fire  may  be  regarded  as  both  of  them  expedients 
for  the  attainment  of  this  end. 

The   sacrificial  lists  which  we  possess  enumerate 


SEMITIC  KELIGIONS  43 

the  objects  which  would  ordinarily  figure  on  the 
tables  of  the  wealthy,  as  well  as  on  those  of  the 
gods.  In  rare  cases,  beasts  or  birds  were  offered 
to  gods  which  were  forbidden  food  for  men ;  in 
many  the  god  shared  his  meal  with  his  worshippers ; 
and  where  there  was  leisure  for  theology,  sacrifices 
were  classified  according  to  the  amount  which  went 
to  the  god.  A  less  scientific  classification  is  that 
according  to  the  nature  of  the  food  offered  ;  for  this 
depended  to  some  extent  on  the  means  of  the  wor- 
shipper, though  naturally  the  difference  between 
nomad  and  agricultural  communities  left  considerable 
traces  on  the  practice.  A  mode  of  making  dough 
serve  instead  of  animal  sacrifices  was  to  offer  figures 
of  creatures  in  paste.  In  the  case  of  the  bloodless 
sacrifice  the  god's  taste  was  naturally  that  of  the 
community  :  and  so  in  Arabia  we  find  offerings  of 
dates.  The  drink-offering  no  less  than  the  meat- 
offering combines  a  variety  of  ideas.  On  the  one 
hand,  the  gods  were  supposed  to  require  liquid  as 
well  as  solid  sustenance — whence  in  Phoenician 
communities  we  find  sacrifices  of  milk  ;  on  the  other, 
there  was  a  doctrine  current  that  what  the  gods 
required  was  blood  rather  than  flesh — whence  the 
word  used  in  the  Old  Testament  for  drink-offering 
stands  in  other  dialects  for  blood-offering,  meaning 
a  slaughtered  animal.  Indeed  this  word  seems 
identical  with  the  oldest  Semitic  word  for  "to 
sacrifice ".  Various  superstitions  connected  with 
blood  have  been  brought  into  connection  with  these 


44  KELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

facts  :  but  if  the  consciousness  of  an  ordinary  wor- 
shipper had  been  interrogated,  he  would  probably 
have  declared  the  drink-offering  of  wine  to  be  the 
natural  accompaniment  of  the  sacrifice  of  meat  or 
fruit,  standing  to  it  in  the  relation  of  drink  to  food. 
The  introduction  of  wine-offerings  must  therefore 
date  from  a  period  when  the  anthropomorphic  theory 
still  found  great  favour. 

The  absence  of  documents  renders  it  difficult  to 
trace  the  growth  of  expedients  for  dealing  with  the 
fact  that  the  gods  did  not  consume  their  food— except, 
indeed,  where  the  law  of  gravitation  could  serve  in 
their  stead.  Food  that  had  been  offered  to  a  god 
probably  acquired  some  sort  of  sanctity,  and  could 
only  be  consumed  by  certain  persons  or  at  certain 
times.  The  rules  connected  therewith  varied  very 
much  with  the  notions  of  sacred  orders  that  de- 
veloped in  different  communities  ;  and  in  many  it 
is  probable  that  the  notion  of  sanctity  became 
exceedingly  loose.  In  prosperous  States,  while,  on 
the  one  hand,  theological  speculation  has  a  tendency 
to  place  fresh  and  ever  fresh  burdens  on  the  people, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  accumulation  of  experience 
tends  to  tear  the  veil  off  sacred  things,  and  make 
some  men,  at  any  rate,  pry  behind  the  curtain. 
Where  we  have  only  fragments  of  history  left,  it 
is  impossible  to  estimate  with  any  probability  the 
resultant  of  these  forces. 

(e)  Sympathy. — In  most  States  the  gods  were 
propitiated  not  only  by  honours  paid  them,  but  also 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  45 

by  pain  and  privation  undergone  by  the  worshipper. 
Many  ancient  rites  and  practices  were  explained  as 
the  commemoration  of  some  misfortune  that  a  god 
had  undergone,  and  the  greater  the  display  of  grief 
the  more  would  the  god  be  gratified.  The  wailing 
for  Tammuz  mentioned  by  Ezekiel  (viii.  14),  doubt- 
less identical  with  the  wailing  for  Adonis  so  graph- 
ically described  by  the  x\lexandrian  Theocritus,  is 
the  most  famous  of  these  ceremonies.  What  is 
noteworthy  is  that  the  wailing  seems  to  have  taken 
place  in  very  different  places,  where  it  was  associated 
with  very  different  names,  but  that  the  rites  and  on 
the  whole  the  stories  bear  a  close  resemblance  to 
each  other.  The  practices  seem  to  have  been  put 
together  out  of  a  variety  of  elements.  Sympathetic 
magic,  i.e.,  the  performance  of  an  act  on  a  small 
scale  in  the  hope  that  a  god  will  perform  it  on  a  large 
one,  lies  at  the  base  of  some  of  the  rites  ;  and  the 
reproduction  of  situations  or  conditions,  by  way  of 
perpetuating  the  memory  of  them,  is  the  secret  of 
others.  Thus  the  time  of  the  year  when  in  an  early 
state  of  civilisation  produce  is  exhausted  is  the  time 
when  men  at  a  later  period  have  religious  fasts  ; 
but  the  nature  of  the  situation  reproduced  is  often 
forgotten.  When  the  lugubrious  ceremony  is  ex- 
plained as  sympathy  with  the  sufferings  of  a  god, 
the  well-known  Indian  doctrine  of  propitiating  by 
pain  usually  takes  the  lead  of  the  other  theories 
associated  with  the  act. 

This  doctrine  probably  is  the  source  of  a  variety  of 


46  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

bodily  mutilations  which  men  underwent.  Illustra- 
tions of  men  cutting  themselves  with  knives  are  to 
be  found  in  the  Bible  ;  a  less  painful  sacrifice  was 
that  of  the  hair  or  part  of  it.  The  priest  or  priestess, 
in  the  case  of  some  of  the  Phoenician  gods,  did  not 
marry. 

The  attitude  adopted  in  approaching  a  god  seems 
ordinarily  to  have  been  that  of  a  slave  approaching 
his  master.  The  words  used  for  piety  have  a  ten- 
dency to  mean  terror  or  timidity  ;  the  word  ordinarily 
used  in  the  Old  Testament  for  "  to  bow  "  suggests 
the  attitude  in  which  a  captive  begs  life  from  his  con- 
queror. The  same  is  the  state  of  mind  suggested  by 
other  words  implying  devotional  attitudes.  Bowing 
the  knees,  kissing  the  feet  (or  the  face),  prostrating 
oneself,  are  all  indicative  of  abject  submission. 

(/)  Entertainments. — Where  a  community  lived 
on  produce  collected  at  some  season  of  the  year,  such 
season  was  a  natural  occasion  for  festivities,  in  which, 
of  course,  the  gods  took  a  leading  part ;  the  real 
occasion  of  the  gathering  was  often  concealed  under 
a  number  of  mythical  causes.  The  popularity  of  the 
moon  god  or  goddess  was  in  part  due  to  the  facilities 
provided  by  the  moon  for  dating  before  the  more 
difficult  solar  calendar  was  introduced  ;  and  the  ap- 
pearance of  certain  constellations  was  in  many  places 
thought  to  stand  in  some  causal  connection  with  the 
seasons  of  the  year.  Owing  to  migration  of  tribes 
feasts  were  kept  up  at  times  which  had  ceased  to  bear 
any  relation  to  the  actual  business  of  the  country. 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  47 

For  the  purpose  of  the  collection  of  produce  and 
the  manifestation  of  festivity  the  community  had  to 
collect  at  a  single  spot ;  and  one  of  the  words  used  for 
feast  in  Canaanitish,  and  thence  borrowed  by  the 
Greeks,  who  have  again  lent  it  to  the  Turks,  appears 
to  mean  "  presenting  oneself,"  and  is  the  same  word 
which  in  other  contexts  has  come  to  signify  "  capital," 
meaning  the  place  of  the  monarch's  presence.  The 
sense  of  the  word  which  also  implies  pilgrimage  is 
not  so  clear ;  but  that  it  is  an  ancient  word  in  this 
sense  is  shown  by  the  name  of  a  month  in  South 
Arabia  called  after  it,  and  also  by  the  Mohammedan 
usage  which  is  inherited  from  the  earlier  paganism. 
The  feast,  signifying  the  gathering  of  the  community 
at  some  particular  spot,  had  then  partly  commercial, 
partly  political,  and  partly  religious  significance  ;  the 
earlier  the  society  the  harder  it  is  to  keep  these 
three  matters  apart.  It  had  the  advantage  of  keep- 
ing up  the  recollection  of  original  relationship  in 
tribes  that  had  become  separated,  and  of  leading  to 
the  reservation  of  part  of  the  year  for  peace,  since 
otherwise  the  tribes  could  not  have  assembled.  The 
creation  of  a  new  centre  invariably  meant  the  breaking 
with  old  ties.  The  ceremonies  of  the  Meccan  pil- 
grimage apparently  contain  many  relics  of  antiquity 
of  which  the  meaning  is  lost ;  while  some,  e.g.,  the 
kissing  of  the  black  stone,  seem  to  belong  to  the 
ordinary  ritual  of  idolatry,  others  seem  to  resemble 
the  Greek  games,  and  to  be  connected  with  displays 
of  strength  and  skill. 


48  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

Such  festivals  seem  to  have  contributed  to  the 
growth  of  culture,  since  new  forms  of  entertainment, 
when  devised,  found  in  them  the  best  occasions  for 
exhibition.  In  the  system  of  small  and  independent 
States  which  seems  to  have  prevailed  in  Palestine 
from  the  earliest  immigration  to  the  times  of  the 
latest  Babylonian  kings,  many  reasons  rendered  it 
advisable  to  celebrate  the  feasts  in  the  metropolis  ; 
and,  though  the  gods  were  often  connected  with 
special  places,  it  seems  to  have  been  regarded  as 
possible  to  instal  them  afresh  in  new-built  houses. 
The  Sidonian  inscription  of  King  Eshmunazar  con- 
tains a  formula  which  seems  to  refer  to  this  process. 
Nevertheless,  the  original  or  favourite  home  of  the 
god  was  likely  to  be  visited  on  special  occasions  ;  and 
indeed  the  existence  of  shrines  erected  at  such  places 
seems  often  to  have  led  to  the  growth  of  towns, 
men  desiring  to  be  near  the  gods  ;  such  proper  names 
as  "  Neighbour  of  Melkkarth  "  commemorate  this 
doctrine. 

Religious  dances  are  known  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  are  to  be  compared  with  the  Arabic  custom 
of  marching  or  running  round  sacred  objects.  The 
Aramaic  word  for  "praise"  or  "hymn"  originally 
refers  to  the  rhythmical  motion  of  the  limbs.  As 
music  and  poetry  were  invented,  they  were  naturally 
drawn  into  the  service  of  the  gods.  The  shouts 
at  the  appearance  of  the  new  moon  seem  to  give 
the  origin  of  the  ordinary  Hebrew  word  for  "  psalm  ". 
We  are,   however,    unable  to   trace  the  process   by 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  49 

which  inarticulate  shouts  developed  into  poetry,  and 
by  which  poems  obtained  a  fixed  place  in  religious 
service.  The  literature  of  the  Babylonians  supplies 
us  with  many  examples  of  sacred  poetry,  doubtless 
liturgically  used ;  and  the  Babylonian  myths  and 
epics,  often  written  in  a  kind  of  verse,  probably  were 
literary  exercises  in  honour  of  gods,  meant  for  com- 
munication at  mysteries.  These  narratives,  of  which 
different  editions  differ  considerably,  were  probably 
communicated  to  the  poets  by  inspiration,  and,  there- 
fore, dissociated  from  the  notion  of  historical  accuracy. 
The  part  assigned  to  different  deities  in  the  epics  varied 
with  the  personal  predilections  of  particular  authors. 

7.  Prophecy. — Among  all  primitive  races  the  help 
of  the  gods  was  not  only  desired  in  action,  but  also 
for  guidance  ;  and  it  was  desirable  on  a  variety  of 
occasions  to  know  their  will,  or  at  any  rate  to  know 
the  future  with  their  aid. 

The  "  practices  of  the  Amorite  "  stand  in  Scripture 
as  a  general  name  for  the  modes  in  which  this  was 
compassed.  They  were  mostly  infantile  guesses  at 
the  disposition  of  the  gods  from  casual  appearances, 
or  from  the  mixture  of  metaphor  with  reality ;  in 
settled  communities  these  were  elaborated  into  sys- 
tems. We  have  seen  that  the  word  used  for  "  priest " 
in  Canaanitish  originally  meant  "  soothsayer  "  ;  and 
another  word  which  occasionally  meets  us  in  the 
Hebrew  Bible  for  "prophet  "  means  really  "  speaker 
in  rhymed  prose  " — the  mode  in  which  these  oracles 
were  regularly  conveyed.     The  name  for  this  style 


50  KELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

of  composition  is  derived  from  the  cooing  of  the 
dove,  which  it  is  supposed  to  resemble ;  and  it  is 
likely  that  the  actual  cooing  of  doves  was  at  one 
time  regarded  as  oracular  and  interpreted  in  this 
style. 

The  voice  and  movements  of  birds  were  with  the 
Semites  as  with  the  Greeks  a  constant  source  of 
augury.  Most  of  the  words  signifying  bird  are 
used  also  in  connection  with  divination ;  and  there 
is  reason  for  thinking  that  in  some  nations  the 
classes  of  birds  that  prophesied  by  their  modes  of 
flight  and  those  that  prophesied  vocally  were  distin- 
guished. One  Hebrew  word  for  prophet  seems  to 
refer  to  the  process  of  observing  their  flight ;  and 
there  are  in  the  Arabic  language  relics  of  an  augural 
terminology  referring  to  the  movements  of  animals. 

The  regular  source  of  information  was,  however, 
the  dream,  in  which  the  god  either  himself  appeared 
to  the  worshipper,  or  conveyed  a  message.  The 
interpretation  of  these  messages  was  no  less  difficult 
than  the  interpretation  of  the  flight  of  birds.  A 
papyrus  of  the  fourth  century  b.c.  gives  us  a  speci- 
men of  a  dream  and  its  interpretation  in  an  Aramaic 
community,  but  is  unfortunately  too  fragmentary  to 
give  us  much  information.  We  need  not  doubt, 
however,  that  the  ordinary  method  of  interpretation 
consisted  of  a  rough  symbolism,  of  which  Greek  and 
Arabic  writers  provide  us  with  examples. 

The  Old  Testament  furnishes  us  with  a  large  vo- 
cabulary of  words  signifying  various  branches  of  the 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  51 

black  art.  Of  one  practice,  mentioned  by  Ezekiel, 
called  divining  by  arrows,  Arabic  antiquarians  have 
a  great  deal  to  say.  Its  purpose  was  originally  to 
assign  the  shares  in  a  slaughtered  camel ;  and,  from 
the  custom  of  doing  this  by  tossing,  the  word  "  to 
apportion  "  came  to  be  regularly  used  for  divination, 
and  preserves  that  sense  in  languages  which  have 
otherwise  lost  the  word.  The  arrows  in  use  among 
the  Arabs  were  ten  in  number,  three  winning  and 
seven  losing.  The  exact  method  by  which  they  were 
used  is  not  clear. 

The  prophet,  who  in  many  cases  was  the  only 
person  qualified  to  use  such  instruments,  was  the 
person  to  be  consulted  in  all  emergencies.  The 
names  by  which  he  is  called  (seer,  augur,  dreamer, 
man  with  a  message)  imply  that  he  acquires  his 
information  in  some  artificial  way,  or  that  he  is  the 
spokesman  of  some  other  power.  Doubtless  the 
healing  of  disease  was  one  of  the  tasks  which  most 
frequently  devolved  upon  him.  There  is  a  consider- 
able charm-literature  in  Babylonian,  in  which  various 
complaints  or  troubles  are  conjured  away.  It  is 
probable  that  such  charms  were  composed  for  the 
occasion  by  individuals  who  knew  the  god's  lan- 
guage, or  at  any  rate  the  manner  in  which  he  could 
be  approached.  All  would  depend  on  the  right  god 
being  addressed,  and  the  right  phrases  being  em- 
ployed. The  classical  case  of  the  summoning  of 
Balaam  illustrates  the  belief  in  the  power  of  words 
to   accomplish  an   effect — a  belief  which  seems  to 


52  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

have  its  origin  in  ideas  contemporaneous  with  the 
discovery  or  invention  of  language.  The  theory, 
however,  that  by  words  men  could  be  raised  or 
lowered,  made  triumphant  or  humiliated,  is  one  that 
was  by  no  means  current  among  the  Semites  only. 
The  belief  that  disease  can  be  quelled  by  words 
should  involve  a  belief  in  evil  spirits  ;  but  this  we  are 
not  perhaps  justified  in  assuming,  except  for  those 
countries  in  which  its  existence  is  attested. 

Frazer  observes  with  justice  that  in  settled  com- 
munities these  practices  have  a  tendency  to  fall 
into  disfavour,  the  more  enlightened  portion  of  the 
community  contenting  themselves  with  prayer  and 
sacrifice.  On  the  one  hand,  the  power  of  raising 
the  wind  and  bringing  rain,  or  otherwise  interfering 
with  the  order  of  nature,  is  too  serious  a  matter 
to  be  left  to  the  disposal  of  individual  members  of 
society ;  it  has  to  be  done  officially,  if  at  all.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  accumulation  of  experiences 
resulting  from  a  settled  state  of  society  produces 
naive  ways  of  bringing  these  effects  into  discredit ; 
those  who  resort  to  them  are  considered  behind  the 
times.  The  desire  for  success  which  those  who 
undertake  to  affect  the  order  of  nature  naturally  feel 
leads,  moreover,  to  a  certain  amount  of  observation 
and  experiment,  and  so  to  the  beginnings  of  science. 

8.  Cosmogony. — We  associate  with  religion  certain 
speculations  on  the  origin  of  things.  So  long  as 
earth,  heaven,  sea,  sun,  moon,  etc.,  are  believed  to 
be   gods,    theogony   is   mixed    up   with   astronomy, 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  5g 

geography,  and  other  physical  inquiries.  To  the 
speculations  of  the  Assyrians  on  these  subjects 
attention  was  called  in  1876  by  Mr.  George  Smith, 
who  was  the  first  to  decipher  the  tablets  in  which 
they  are  preserved.  Since  then  they  have  been  the 
subject  of  a  very  considerable  literature. 

These  speculations  take  the  form  of  fairy-tales, 
in  which  the  primal  chaos  is  personified,  and  after 
a  struggle  between  gods  and  monsters,  one  god, 
Marduk,  settles  affairs  and  proceeds  to  create  the 
different .  forms  of  life.  Some  of  these  tales  have 
been  traced  to  a  period  anterior  to  2000  B.C.,  and 
they  are  shown  by  the  evidence  of  Greek  writers 
to  have  been  still  current  about  300  B.C.  The  tales 
exhibit  great  inconsistencies,  as,  indeed,  might  be 
expected  in  works  of  the  imagination.  An  account 
somewhat  similar  in  style  appears  to  have  been 
current  in  Phoenicia,  of  which  also  some  fragments 
are  preserved  by  a  Greek  writer.  Fairly  close 
parallels  to  these  tales  are  to  be  found  in  the  Greek 
and  Indian  cosmogonies.  They  are,  of  course,  works 
of  the  imagination,  in  which  here  and  there  an  alle- 
gory can  be  traced.  Probably  each  narrator  was  not 
only  in  the  habit  of  altering  and  adding  details  from 
his  own  fancy,  and  even  introducing  fresh  characters, 
where  possible,  but  was  even  expected  to  do  so.  We 
cannot  say  how  far  these  stories  would  have  been 
accepted  as  the  correct  account  of  the  origin  of  things 
among  the  small  Semitic  States  of  Palestine.  Mo- 
hammed declared  that  in  his  time,  if  the  idolaters 


54  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

were  asked  who  made  heaven  and  earth,  they  would 
answer  Allah — who,  however,  when  booty  was  di- 
vided received  a  smaller  share  than  other  gods.  Of 
course,  this  answer  may  have  been  put  into  their 
mouths  by  Mohammed,  or  may  have  been  learnt  by 
the  Meccans  from  Christians.  We  have,  indeed,  little 
ground  for  supposing  that  the  Semites  were  given  to 
studying  questions  of  which  the  character  was  unpracti- 
cal ;  it  is,  however,  probable  that  had  the  Babylonian 
myths  been  current  among  them,  some  allusions  to 
these  would  have  been  found  in  inscriptions  or  art. 

Of  the  Phoenician  mythology  preserved  by  Euse- 
bius  from  the  translation  of  the  work  of  Sanchoniathon 
the  accuracy  is  doubtful ;  it  is,  however,  certain  that 
it  preserves  many  names  which  were  not  known  to 
Greek  writers,  but  which  the  discovery  of  Phoenician 
inscriptions  enables  us  to  identify  and  interpret.  The 
work  of  the  Phoenician  writer  seems  to  have  been 
mainly  a  "  book  of  origins,"  i.e.,  an  attempt  to  deter- 
mine the  authors  of  a  variety  of  inventions.  It  is 
natural  that  maritime  and  piscatory  matters  were 
therein  assigned  special  importance.  The  inventors 
of  various  forms  of  dwellings,  of  agricultural  pro- 
cesses, and  of  letters  also,  are  specified.  The  stories 
are  otherwise  no  better  and  no  worse  than  those  in 
the  Greek  archaeologies.  The  author  seems  to 
combine  tradition  with  inferences  drawn  by  himself 
from  the  proper  names  of  the  gods  and  goddesses. 
The  Greek  paraphrast  certainly  introduced  some 
confusion  by  substituting  Greek  words  for  the 
Phoenician  names  in  his  text. 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  55 

9.  Morals. — The  connection  between  the  gods  and 
morality  is  probably  to  be  found  in  the  need  of  order  : 
the  internal  order  of  the  State  had  to  be  preserved 
by  the  head  of  it.  Certain  forms  of  immorality 
which  led  to  its  dissolution  were  therefore  punishable 
by  the  god  of  the  State,  and  were  regarded  as  his 
abomination.  We  learn  from  an  inscription  that 
in  Sidon  grave-opening  was  an  abomination  to 
Ashtoreth ;  and  there  is  a  curious  set  of  South  Arabian 
inscriptions  in  which  persons  guilty  of  certain  forms 
of  uncleanness  have  to  apologise  to  the  gods  in 
public. 

Of  the  existence  of  codes  supposed  to  emanate 
from  these  Semitic  divinities  we  have  at  present  little 
evidence.  Yet  analogy  makes  it  certain  that  so  im- 
portant a  part  of  the  kingly  duty  as  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice  could  not  be  done  without  divine 
authorisation  ;  and  a  king  claims  long  life  from  his 
goddess  on  the  ground  of  his  justice.  The  gods, 
moreover,  everywhere  served  as  witnesses  to  oaths, 
whether  in  treaties  or  in  matters  of  internal  com- 
merce ;  and  it  is  probable  that  such  institutions  as 
the  law  of  talio  and  blood-money  were  everywhere 
divine  ordinances.  It  is  likely,  however,  that  the 
chief  concern  of  the  gods  was  with  the  worshipper's 
food  ;  in  Assyrian  tablets  the  danger  of  eating  im- 
proper food  seems  more  present  to  the  mind  of  the 
devotee  than  any  other  ;  and  in  the  expiatory  tablets 
referred  to  it  is  physical  rather  than  moral  unclean- 
ness which  offends  the  deities. 


56  EELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

We  have  already  seen  that  certain  forms  of  im- 
morality   were    not    only   countenanced,    but    even 
enjoined,  by  many  Semitic  cults,  and  that  in  many 
other  matters  the  morality  of  the  religion  was  apt  to 
be  far  behind  that  of  the  communities  at  the  time  of 
their  progress  and  prosperity.     We  have  little  evi- 
dence to  connect  the  greater  number  of  the  Semitic 
gods  with  lofty  ideas  of  justice  or  morality.     The 
services  with  which  they  are  credited  in  the  inscrip- 
tions which  we  possess  are  invariably  of  a  material 
order,  while  their  failing  to  give  the  desired  assistance 
is  accounted  for  on  the  ground  of  their  privileges 
being  neglected.     The  worship  of  goddesses,  which 
was  ordinarily  popular,  was  not  only  associated  with 
indifferent  morality,  but  also,  being  based  on  current 
theories  of  female  nature,  led  to  an  assumption  of 
moral  and  intellectual  weakness  in  the  deity  which 
barred  the  progress  of  lofty  notions.     Of  missions 
that  could  be  compared  with  those  of  the  Hebrew 
prophets  we  have  no  records  ;  and  when  Mohammed 
abolished  the  idolatry  of  Arabia  it  would  appear  that 
the  morality  which  he  introduced  was  regarded  as  that 
already  current  in  the  better  class  of  society,  but  not 
as  that  which   the  old  gods  had  authorised.     The 
character  of  that  morality  naturally  differed  widely, 
according  to  the  state  of  each  community  ;  in  nomad 
tribes  there  was  little  idea  of  rights  connected  with 
property,  and  the  regard  for  human  life  was  restrained 
within  narrow  limits.     In  stationary  societies,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  institution  of  private  property  and 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  57 

the  need  for  security  of  life  soon  made  themselves 
felt.  But  although  the  gods  were  supposed  to  take 
part  in  the  quarrels  of  the  community  and  of  the 
individual,  we  have  little  reason  for  supposing  that 
they  were  credited  with  the  will  and  the  power  to 
judge  aright,  and  to  side  with  the  good. 

Worship  consisted  in  gratifying  their  tastes,  and 
theories  as  to  these  survived  ordinarily  from  times 
when  moral  ideas  had  been  but  little  developed. 
Where  any  myths  were  attached  to  them  it  is  prob- 
able that  their  record  was  no  better  than  that  of 
the  Greek  gods  ;  and  in  any  case  the  notions  asso- 
ciated with  them  were  rather  those  of  waywardness 
and  pettiness  than  of  justice  and  integrity.  The  idea 
also  that  the  worshipper  possessed  some  power  over 
the  god,  which  he  could  exercise  by  ill-treating  the 
image,  existed  in  many  States.  The  process  of  nail- 
ing an  image  to  its  place  was  employed  to  prevent  its 
deserting  to  the  enemy.  We  read  also  of  the  images 
being  flogged  when  the  gods  failed  to  do  what  was 
desired.  Punishment  of  the  gods  by  reducing  their 
rations  was  also  occasionally  employed.  A  legend 
records  how  a  Bedouin  broke  a  stone  god  because  it 
had  frightened  his  camels. 

Of  the  place  of  women  in  the  smaller  Semitic 
States  we  have  few  records.  In  Saba  and  other 
South  Arabian  communities  they  sometimes  figure  as 
chieftains  and  owners  of  castles,  and  in  inscriptions 
make  handsome  offerings  to  the  gods.  There  is 
little  reason  to  doubt  that  monogamy  was  usual  in 


58  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

these  communities,  though  not  invariably  practised. 
The  name  for  fellow-wife  goes  back  to  remote 
antiquity,  and  even  late  Jewish  codes  regard  polyg- 
amy as  a  moral  state ;  but  a  variety  of  practical 
difficulties  stand  in  the  way  of  the  custom  in  settled 
societies.  There  is  evidence  in  Phoenician  com- 
munities of  the  practice  of  marriage  between  near 
relations,  such  as  the  Jewish  law  would  have  for- 
bidden ;  and  evidence,  in  Arabian  communities,  of 
the  retention  of  the  father's  wives  by  the  son,  a 
practice  countenanced  by  Greek  tradition,  but  dis- 
approved by  Jewish  law.  The  results  of  the  system 
of  slavery  were  invariably  such  as  to  degrade  sexual 
morality,  and  in  this  matter  the  Semitic  communities 
were  probably  on  a  level  with  the  Mohammedan 
States  of  recent  times. 

Of  the  virtues  produced  by  the  religious  systems 
we  can  therefore  say  little,  but  it  is  probable  that 
the  ideas  of  any  Semitic  society  on  the  subject  of 
conduct  would  have  differed  exceedingly  from  those 
of  modern  Europe,  and  that  the  gods  would  have 
had  little  connection  with  any  points  on  which  the 
two  were  agreed.  While  religion  served  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  nearly  all  forms  of  knowledge,  acts  were 
naturally  estimated  by  their  supposed  consequences  ; 
and  those  acts  which  would  alienate  the  god  or  bring 
down  his  vengeance  on  the  community  would  be 
prohibited  by  graver  and  ever  graver  sanctions.  Of 
the  series  of  reformers  by  whom  the  false  premises 
were  refuted,  we   have   no  record  in  any  case  save 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  59 

that  of  the  Hebrews ;  yet  these  wrong  notions 
require  for  their  abolition  the  activity  of  enlightened 
minds,  and  even  so  die  hard. 

10.  Future  Life, — Religion  does  not  seem  ordin- 
arily with  the  Semites  to  have  been  a  preparation 
for  a  future  life,  and  the  inscriptions  are  rare  which 
suggest  any  idea  of  it.  Some  which  show  definite 
Egyptian  influence  are  naturally  excluded  from  con- 
sideration. The  grave  is  described  as  an  eternal 
resting-place.  In  many  communities  steps  are  taken 
to  ensure  that  the  remains  of  the  deceased  shall  not 
be  disturbed.  The  graves  are  hewn  where  possible 
out  of  the  solid  rock ;  solemn  injunctions  are  laid  on 
the  representatives  of  the  deceased  never  to  part 
with  the  tomb  or  admit  strangers ;  and  the  help  of 
both  gods  and  magistrates  is  besought  to  secure 
their  remaining  undisturbed.  Anxiety  to  remain  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  resting-place  of  departed 
relations  is  often  expressed ;  and  nomad  communities 
appear  to  have  carried  the  remains  of  important 
persons  when  they  migrated.  The  body  was  thought 
to  join  a  community  below  the  earth  called  in  some 
places  "Refaim";  and  its  happiness  was  thought 
to  consist  in  repose. 

Immortality  consisted  in  leaving  offspring,  whence 
childlessness  is  the  most  grievous  imprecation  that 
can  be  uttered ;  in  some  cases,  however,  a  monument 
might  serve  instead,  whence  we  read  in  certain  in- 
scriptions that  the  authors  had  erected  the  pillars 
to  themselves  in  their  lifetimes.     The  Aramaic  use 


60  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

of  the  word  "  Soul  "  for  monument  seems  connected 
with  this  class  of  ideas,  though  the  connection  can- 
not easily  be  analysed.  That  the  body  was  often 
thought  to  retain  some  kind  of  sensation  after  death 
seems  likely.  This  agrees  with  the  practice  of  bury- 
ing treasure  with  the  corpse,  leading  to  the  assevera- 
tion on  some  tombs  that  there  is  no  treasure  inside, 
and  also  to  the  prayer  that  graves  might  be  watered, 
based  on  the  supposition  that  water  was  as  necessary 
to  the  dead  as  to  the  living ;  the  provision  of  food  for 
the  dead  which  appears  to  have  been  a  practice  of 
post-exilian  Jews  was  probably  Persian  rather  than 
Semitic.  Of  the  doctrine  of  the  ghost  we  get  some 
traces  in  Arabic  superstitions  ;  with  the  Arabs  it  was 
thought  at  any  rate  in  some  cases  to  take  the  form 
of  a  bird  which  hovered  over  the  grave. 

The  Assyrians  probably  had  a  more  vivid  account 
of  the  lower  world  than  the  other  Semites.  In  the 
Descent  of  Ishtar  it  is  described  mythologically  as 
a  place  where  there  is  no  light,  where  dust  serves 
for  food,  and  whence  the  traveller  returns  not.  It  is 
guarded  by  a  porter,  and  is  the  permanent  residence 
of  certain  gods.  The  idea  that  the  gods  of  the 
upper  world  have  no  business  down  below  seems 
to  be  the  fundamental  idea  of  that  story.  In  the 
Arabic  mythology  a  god  of  the  lower  world  named 
Sha'ub  was  recognised,  and  meeting  with  this  deity 
is  an  expression  for  dying.  In  the  Phoenician  in- 
scription of  King  Eshmunazar  he  prays  that  those 
who  violate  his  tomb  may  after  death  be  delivered 


SEMITIC  RELIGIONS  (31 

over  to  a  tyrant  who  shall  deal  fiercely  with 
them. 

The  idea  of  a  "glorious  resurrection"  seems  to 
have  been  quite  unfamilar  to  the  Semitic  races,  and 
the  Koran  repeatedly  records  the  ridicule  with  which 
the  notion  was  received  by  the  Arab  pagans.  Hence 
the  worship  of  heroes  seems  to  have  been  exceedingly 
rare  ;  and  even  the  salutation  "  Hail  "  which  is  found 
in  some  inscriptions  appears  to  be  in  imitation  of 
Greek  usage.  When  the  Phoenician  gods  and  god- 
desses were  identified  by  the  learned  with  those  of 
Greece,  the  theory  that  they  were  heroes  and 
heroines  came  in  vogue,  but  it  was  rarely  grounded 
in  Semitic  beliefs.  The  gods  were,  indeed,  like  men, 
but  death  was  not  a  means  by  which  the  latter  were 
transferred  into  the  former's  society. 

The  want  of  any  notion  of  a  future  fife  among  the 
Semitic  peoples  probably  facilitated  the  introduction 
of  those  cults  in  which  great  importance  was  attached 
to  it,  especially  the  Egyptian  religion.  The  material 
at  our  disposal  does  mot  enable  us  to  say  whether 
burial  was  ever  or  often  regarded  as  a  religious  service  ; 
in  one  inscription  there  may  perhaps  be  a  reference 
to  the  consecration  of  a  tomb  ;  but  of  any  mystical  con- 
nection between  rites  performed  over  a  man's  corpse 
and  its  future  destiny  the  material  at  our  disposal 
does  not  furnish  any  evidence.  The  ordinary  treat- 
ment of  a  corpse,  whether  cremation  or  sepulture, 
doubtless  was  regarded  as  the  proper  treatment,  to  be 
deprived  of  which  constituted  an  indignity. 


CHAPTEE  III. 

THE  EELIGION  OF  EGYPT. 

1.  Sources. — The  sources  of  our  knowledge  of  the 
religion  of  Egypt  are  original  documents  on  stone, 
wood  and  papyrus,  of  which  many  have  been  trans- 
ferred to  European  collections,  while  many  still 
remain  near  their  original  homes.  The  period  cov- 
ered by  these  monuments  is  very  long — scarcely  less 
than  4,000  years.  During  that  period  the  political 
condition  of  Egypt  and  also  its  religions  underwent 
the  changes  which  even  in  conservative  countries 
the  ages  naturally  bring ;  but  some  characteristic 
institutions  and  beliefs  seem  to  have  existed  from 
the  earliest  period  to  the  introduction  of  Christianity, 
while  in  other  cases  the  new  growth  did  not  alto- 
gether oust  the  pre-existing  material,  but  allowed  it 
to  continue.  The  key  to  the  interpretation  of  these 
monuments  was  discovered  early  in  the  nineteenth 
century  by  Champollion,  whose  ideas  have  been 
developed  by  a  long  series  of  workers.  To  the  in- 
formation which  they  provide  valuable  supplements 
are   furnished   by  Greek  writers  whose   notices  of 

Egyptian  religion  were  collected  and  utilised  bv  Sir 
(62) 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  63 

Gardiner  Wilkinson  in  his  classical  work  on  the 
ancient  civilisation  of  Egypt.  References  to  the  re- 
ligion of  Egypt  are  rare  in  the  Old  Testament ;  but 
from  Jeremiah  (xlvi.  25)  we  learn  the  name  of  one 
Egyptian  god  (Amon  or  Amen),  and  it  has  been 
conjectured  that  Isaiah  x.  4  contains  the  name  of 
Osiris ;  while  the  name  of  the  priest  of  On,  the  pa- 
tron of  Joseph,  contains  the  name  of  the  sun  god, 
Ra  (Potipe-Ra).  Casual  notices  tell  us  of  the  Egyp- 
tians' polytheism,  of  their  animal  worship  (Exodus 
viii.  26),  of  their  exclusiveness  and  of  their  addiction 
to  the  practice  of  magic.  Allusions  also  occur  to 
the  practice  of  embalming  (Gen.  1.),  which  was  of 
course  a  religious  rite.  Still  the  total  absence  of 
reference  to  the  most  characteristic  doctrine  of  the 
Egyptians  cannot  be  accidental. 

2.  The  Mummy. — More  than  any  other  ancient 
people  the  Egyptians  were  concerned  with  the  state 
of  man  after  death.  That  concern  is  illustrated  by 
the  Pyramids,  which  among  the  tombs  of  all  ages 
and  countries  take  the  first  place  for  permanence 
and  magnificence.  It  is  illustrated  by  the  embalm- 
ing process,  producing  the  mummy,  an  institution 
characteristic  of  ancient  Egypt.  It  is  illustrated  in 
the  third  place  by  the  quantity  of  Egyptian  literature 
which  is  connected  either  with  funeral  rites  or  with 
matter  bearing  on  the  state  of  the  deceased. 

A  mummy  was  made  by  removing  from  the  body 
those  internal  organs  the  preservation  of  which  was 
specially  difficult,   and   saturating   the   whole   with 


64  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

natron,1  while  powerful  aromatic  drugs  were  intro- 
duced within.  The  body  was  then  swathed  with 
bands  of  linen  daubed  with  gum,  and,  in  the  case  of 
the  wealthy,  placed  in  a  coffin.  The  Egyptian 
treatment  rendered  the  body  capable  of  remaining 
intact  for  an  unlimited  period,  even  5,000  years. 
The  ground  for  the  endeavour  to  preserve  it  must 
clearly  have  been  the  supposition  that  the  body 
after  death  was  not  wholly  devoid  of  sensation,  but 
continued  to  feel  and  enjoy.  He  therefore  who  in- 
vented a  plan  by  which  it  could  be  saved  from  decay 
was  probably  regarded  as  a  benefactor  to  the  race — 
somewhat  as  we  regard  the  inventor  of  a  prophy- 
lactic against  any  ordinary  disease.  The  house  that 
was  built  for  the  dead  man  was  then  (where  such 
could  be  afforded)  of  solidity  and  permanence  suited 
to  the  length  of  time  in  which  the  corpse  was  ex- 
pected to  remain  the  same.  The  chamber  in  which 
it  was  lodged  was  rendered  as  inaccessible  as  possible, 
so  that  the  dead  man  might  not  be  disturbed.  In 
ante-chambers,  however,  places  were  provided  where 
his  statue  could  be  set,  and  where  offerings  to  him 
could  be  made.  Provision  was  then  made  for  his 
comfort  on  the  supposition  that  the  dead  man's 
wants  were  similar  to  the  wants  of  the  living. 

One   of  the   most   eminent  of    Egyptian   experts 

1  I.e.,  "a  mixture  of  carbonate,  sulphate  and  muriate  of 
soda"  (Budge,  The  Mummy  (1893),  p.  183).  This  work  con- 
tains a  full  account  of  the  processes  employed  and  their 
results.     Salt  and  bitumen  were  also  used. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  65 

has  suggested  that  the  word  "  conservatism  "  is  that 
which  best  describes  the  Egyptian  habit  of  mind.  In 
progressive  communities  the  new  knowledge  causes 
the  old  error  to  be  banished ;  in  Egypt  old  errors 
were  rarely  banished.  A  mode  was  found  of  adapt- 
ing the  new  knowledge  to  the  old  theory.  The  idea 
that  the  sensation  of  the  body  did  not  terminate 
with  death,  leading  to  the  discovery  of  expedients  for 
preserving  it  against  the  worm,  must  belong  to  the 
infancy  of  the  human  race ;  but  the  discovery  that 
this  was  an  error  seems  not  to  have  affected  Egyptian 
practice.  It  was  indeed  perceived  that  the  dead  man 
could  not  enjoy,  because  he  had  no  longer  some  of 
the  instruments  of  enjoyment,  or  could  not  use  them 
if  he  had.  Means  were  therefore  devised  to  restore 
the  use  of  them  to  him.  We  possess  a  whole  liturgy 
of  which  the  avowed  object  is  to  open  the  mouth 
and  eyes  of  the  deceased.  This  operation  was  not, 
however,  performed  on  the  corpse,  but  on  the  coffin, 
or  on  an  image  of  the  deceased  which  served  vicari- 
ously. With  the  aid  of  an  adze  and  a  chisel  the 
mouth  and  eyes  were  opened.  With  the  aid  of  pig- 
ment the  red  colour  was  (in  theory)  restored  to  the 
lips.  Teeth  of  a  sort  were  provided,  and  food  intro- 
duced, or  a  feint  of  introducing  it  made. 

These  ceremonies  imply  the  belief,  or  at  least  the 
fancy,  that  the  functions  of  life  could  be  restored  to 
the  corpse  by  an  operation.  They  continued  in  use 
when  the  conviction  that  this  could  not  be  done  in  the 
literal  sense  had  become  universal  among  those  who 
5 


66  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

thought.  They  also  illustrated  (whether  they  began 
or  not)  the  magical  theory  by  which  what  you  do 
to  a  man's  substitute  you  do  to  himself.  But  pre- 
sently the  difficulties  involved  opened  the  way  to 
speculation.  Since,  after  all,  the  body  did  not  enjoy 
what  was  given  it,  it  was  assumed  that  something 
else  did.  Besides  the  body,  then,  there  must  exist  a 
double,  which,  though  ordinarily  invisible,  for  many 
purposes  might  serve  as  a  substitute  for  the  body. 
This  double  (called  Ka)  was  thought  of  probably  as 
the  reflection  of  the  man,  such  as  appears  in  water 
or  on  a  polished  surface.  The  process  of  embalming 
was  now  explained  as  the  preservation  of  the  Ka, 
and  the  presence  of  images  in  the  tomb  was  in 
order  that,  in  the  event  of  the  mummy  after  all 
perishing,  the  Ka  might  still  have  something  on 
which  it  might  support  itself.  The  greater  the 
number  of  the  images  the  better  the  chance.  The 
Ka,  though  scarcely  material,  was  still  supposed  to 
consume  material  food,  though  after  a  time  repre- 
sentations of  food  presented  were  thought  to  serve 
the  same  purpose,  or,  indeed,  prayers  that  it  might 
be  fed  were  regarded  as  sufficient  to  ensure  that  its 
wants  would  be  supplied.  Or,  finally,  it  was  thought 
that  the  gods  would  be  able  to  feed  it,  and  that  by 
supplying  them  with  food  there  was  a  prospect  of 
their  being  willing  to  spare  some  of  it  for  the  Ka. 
Soon  came  the  difficulty  that  the  tomb  was  a 
gloomy  home  for  the  Ka,  and  a  doctrine  came  into 
existence  promising  it  a  brighter  and  fresher  abode. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  67 

The  dead  under  certain  conditions  were  supposed  to 
migrate  somewhere  else.  At  first  their  Elysium  was 
placed  on  earth,  in  some  region  difficult  of  access. 
The  fields  of  Yalu,  the  Egyptian  Paradise,  were  first 
placed  in  the  Delta  between  two  of  the  Nile  mouths. 
When  this  country  became  known,  it  was  placed 
farther  and  farther  away.  Means,  however,  had  to 
be  devised  for  giving  the  dead  power  to  leave  their 
tombs  and  travel  thither.  This  was  done  by  the 
celebrated  Book  of  the  Dead  which  was  deposited 
with  them.  It  contained  the  spells  by  which  they 
could  effect  this  process. 

Finally,  the  earth  was  no  longer  regarded  as  a 
fitting  abode  for  the  dead,  and  their  Elysium  was 
transferred  to  the  sky.  This  they  were  to  scale  as 
other  places  are  scaled,  and  in  some  tombs  ladders 
are  provided  for  the  purpose.  This  naive  notion  was 
replaced  by  the  theory  that  the  soul  was  a  bird, 
whose  wings  would  carry  it  upward.  But  during 
the  process  of  evolution  of  these  theories  the  human 
being  had  come  to  be  analysed  into  a  great  variety 
of  constituents,  his  shadow  and  his  name,  his  double, 
his  soul  and  his  spiritual  body,  etc. 

Of  the  state  of  the  souls  after  death  there  were 
successive  theories.  At  one  time  it  was  supposed 
that  they  would  be  engaged  in  agriculture,  only  the 
soil  they  were  to  till  would  be  more  fertile  and  the 
crops  taller  than  those  which  they  had  produced  on 
earth.  When  the  idea  of  manual  labour  continued 
after   death   became   wanting   in   attractiveness,   the 


68  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

slaves  of  the  wealthy  were  embalmed  with  them  in 
order  to  discharge  the  duty  in  their  stead ;  and 
presently  for  these  there  were  buried  figures  called 
"answerers"  which  would  serve  as  substitutes.  In 
one  of  the  books  on  the  future  state,  it  appears 
that  some  souls  were  to  be  left  by  the  sun  as 
colonists  in  the  region  which  he  traversed  in  his 
boat ;  whereas  those  who  were  in  possession  of  the 
most  forcible  spells  would  continue  in  the  sun's 
boat  and  accompany  him  always.  With  the  state  of 
those  who  failed  to  pass  the  test  at  the  judgment  of 
Osiris,  or  on  whose  bodies  the  proper  rites  had  not 
been  performed,  speculation  seems  to  have  been  but 
little  concerned. 

We  have  constantly  to  remember  in  studying  the 
history  of  human  beliefs  that  what  is  invented  for 
one  reason  is  preserved  for  another.  When  the 
doctrine  of  a  soul  flying  to  heaven  after  leaving  the 
body  had  been  recognised,  what  further  use  was 
there  for  the  elaborate  process  of  embalming,  and 
the  variety  of  rites  and  ceremonies  which  apparently 
assumed  that  the  body  was  the  man  ?  What  further 
use  for  the  tomb-builder,  or  for  the  priest  whose 
business  it  was  to  convey  food  to  the  dead  man  ? 
Whole  professions,  however,  do  not  allow  themselves 
to  be  abolished  by  logic.  It  was  discovered  that  the 
embalming  process  and  the  accompanying  ceremonies 
were  the  means  by  which  immortality  and  paradise 
could  be  secured.  And  for  this  doctrine  a  mythical 
reason  was  given.     The  process  was  an  imitation  of 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  69 

an  ancient  experiment :  Osiris  had  been  killed  (per- 
haps at  one  time  death  implied  killing),  and  for 
him  immortality  had  been  secured  by  the  process 
of  putting  his  limbs  together  and  embalming  them. 
At  one  time  the  body  seems  before  embalming  to 
have  been  broken  and  afterwards  pieced  together, 
in  order  to  make  the  correspondence  more  exact ; 
but  this  mythical  explanation  of  the  process  served 
to  harmonise  it  with  advancing  beliefs.  The  dead 
man  was  to  regard  himself  as  Osiris  :  but  also  Osiris 
was  the  god  of  the  dead,  and  the  judge  of  the  dead 
(we  have  in  dealing  with  eschatology  to  be  prepared 
for  mistiness  and  vagueness). 

3.  Animal  Worship.— The  Egyptian  theology  as 
it  dealt  with  gods  shows  traces  of  the  same  principle 
— the  retention  of  views  belonging  to  a  number  of 
different  periods.  The  ancients  were  struck  by  one 
fact  about  the  Egyptian  worship — the  tenant  of 
the  shrine  was  a  living  animal — the  worship  of  the 
bulls  Apis  at  Memphis  and  Mnevis  at  On  (Anu  or 
Heliopolis)  were  the  most  famous  of  these  cults ; 
but  similar  honours  were  paid  at  different  places 
to  a  variety  of  animals — the  lion,  ram,  crocodile, 
cat,  swallow,  snake,  etc.  In  some  of  these  cases 
(as  in  that  of  Apis  and  Mnevis)  divine  honours 
were  paid  to  individuals  of  the  species,  recognised 
by  certain  signs,  and  therefore  (at  any  rate  at  some 
time)  regarded  as  the  embodiment  of  a  deity. 
These  individuals  when  recognised  were  trained  to  a 
certain  extent,  lodged   in  temples,  where  they  were 


70  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

maintained  in  luxury,  and  received  homage  and 
admiration  ;  they  were  called  on  for  aid,  and  even 
administered  oracles.  In  other  cases  a  whole  species 
was  regarded  as  inviolable,  and  ill-treatment  of  any 
member  of  it  severely  punished.  In  both  classes  of 
cases  the  animals  so  worshipped  received  elaborate 
burial.  The  different  regions  of  Egypt  varied  con- 
siderably as  to  the  animals  to  which  they  assigned 
divine  honours  ;  and  this  difference  was  sometimes 
(it  is  said)  a  cause  for  war  and  bloodshed. 

There  is  little  reason  for  distinguishing  the  Egyptian 
worship  of  animals  from  other  cases  of  zoolatry.  It 
dates  from  a  time  in  which  man  regarded  other 
animals  as  his  equals  or  superiors,  and  when  the 
meaning  of  "  kinds  "  existing  in  nature  was  not 
understood. 

The  widespread  phenomenon  of  totemism,  as  illus- 
trated by  the  researches  of  Frazer  and  others,  gives 
us  at  any  rate  the  origin  of  the  Egyptian  practice. 
A  tribe  or  clan  is  supposed  to  be  connected  with 
some  animal  (in  rare  cases  with  an  inanimate  object), 
and  puts  itself  into  relation  with  the  species,  or  some 
member  of  it.  The  clan  abstain,  as  a  rule,  from  the 
flesh  of  the  animal  which  they  regard  as  their  totem, 
and  even  punish  ill-treatment  of  it.  Often  they  mark 
their  bodies  with  rude  representations  of  the  totem 
animal,  or  mutilate  their  persons  in  such  a  way  as 
to  produce  some  resemblance  thereto.  The  practice 
often  is  accompanied  with  the  belief  that  the  ancestor 
or  ancestress  of  the  clan  was  a  member  of  the  totem 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  71 

species.  Totems  belong  not  only  to  clans,  but  even 
to  individuals  and  sexes  ;  and  in  each  case  the  totem 
animal  is  the  object  of  respect,  and  is  treated  as  an 
ally. 

That  the  animals  worshipped  in  Egypt  were  in 
origin  the  totems  of  tribes  need  not  be  doubted.  But 
even  at  the  earliest  period  to  which  the  history  of 
Egyptian  civilisation  can  be  traced  it  seems  certain 
that  the  cult  of  animals  was  no  longer  quite  naive. 
At  a  later  time  the  priests  could  show  a  great  number 
of  reasons  for  it.  Thus  the  people  were  taught  to 
regard  an  animal  as  sacred,  because,  being  useful, 
it  was  important  that  it  should  be  preserved,  or 
because  the  species  suggested  the  practice  of  some 
particular  virtue.  And  indeed  quite  modern  writers 
have  credited  the  Egyptian  priests  with  an  occult 
wisdom  which  they  concealed  from  the  masses.  The 
only  truth  that  this  view  can  have  may  be  that  in 
the  priestly  colleges  speculation  was  rife  on  the 
purpose  of  existing  practices  ;  but  such  reasons  as 
the  priests  could  allege  would  not  have  been  the 
ground  for  the  custom  but  an  apology  for  it. 

4.  Gods  of  Egypt. — Egypt  was  divided  into  forty- 
two  (or  more)  nomes  or  departments  which  were 
said  to  have  had  originally  an  independent  existence. 
Afterwards  they  were  merged  into  two  kingdoms, 
and  at  the  commencement  of  Egyptian  history  into 
one.  Each  of  these  had  in  historical  times  its  own 
chief  god  ;  in  some  cases  two  or  more  nomes  wor- 
shipped the  same.     The  god  had  his  temple  in  the 


72  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

chief  city  of  the  nome,  where  there  was  a  college  of 
priests  to  look  after  his  comfort.  That  these  gods 
were  originally  the  totems  of  the  tribes  is  likely  j  but 
we  can  trace  on  the  one  hand  a  process  by  which 
the  god  became  separated  from  the  totem,  and  on 
the  other  hand  an  attempt  to  identify  the  god  with 
something  otherwise  known  and  familiar.  The  re- 
presentation of  many  of  the  gods  was  with  human 
bodies,  but  heads  of  animals.  Where  an  individual 
animal  was  worshipped,  it  was  thought  to  be  an 
incarnation  of  a  god,  i.e.,  in  theory  the  bull  was  not 
worshipped  qua  bull,  but  as  an  incarnation  of  the 
god  Ptah.  Where  a  species  received  homage,  it  was 
explained  that  such  a  species  was  the  favourite  of 
some  god.  It  was  also  held  that  the  real  reason  for 
the  worship  of  animals  was  that  at  one  time  the  gods 
had  thus  to  disguise  themselves  when  visiting  the 
earth,  for  fear  of  suffering  oppression  had  they  dis- 
played their  real  forms. 

The  union  of  the  nomes  into  a  nation  led  to  the 
migration  of  deities  from  one  nome  to  another,  and 
to  a  tendency  to  exalt  the  god  of  the  nome  that 
provided  the  King  of  Egypt  at  the  expense  of  the 
local  gods.  Thus  we  get  the  association  of  a  variety 
of  gods  in  the  temples  of  each,  the  chief  god  having 
his  contemplar  deities.  From  the  time  of  this  com- 
munity of  deities  we  may  trace  the  commencement 
of  speculation  that  led  to  important  results. 

The  names  of  the  gods  were  interpreted  as  mean- 
ing natural  objects.     Thus  Osiris  was  said  to  mean 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  73 

the  Nile.  What  or  who  he  was  originally  will  perhaps 
never  be  known  ;  he  figures  in  a  variety  of  capacities. 
Frazer  has  made  it  probable  that  he  was  originally  a 
corn  god,  or  at  any  rate  that  his  mythical  history  is 
derived  from  practices  which  imply  such  a  deity. 
According  to  some  he  is  the  first  man,  according  to 
many  the  ideal  man  ;  at  one  period  he  was  identified 
with  the  sun  ;  his  identification  with  the  Nile  is 
probably  as  much  an  afterthought  as  any  of  these. 
All  the  gods  of  his  circle,  i.e.,  all  the  persons  who 
entered  into  his  story,  when  that  had  been  brought 
into  shape,  were  gods  of  nomes  ;  it  may  be  that  the 
authors  of  the  story  were  consciously  turning  the 
language  of  metaphor  into  commonplace  history,  or 
that  fragments  of  real  history  were  adapted  to  the 
names  provided  by  these  nomic  gods.  The  Nile 
being  divided  into  a  number  of  mouths  might  per- 
haps suggest  that  the  body  of  Osiris  had  been  cut  in 
pieces  ;  however  that  may  be,  the  story,  in  the  form 
which  it  reached  at  the  earliest  known  period  of 
Egyptian  history,  appears  to  have  known  of  an  Osiris 
with  a  brother  Set  who  murdered  him,  and  sisters 
Isis  and  Nephthys  who  rendered  him  immortal ;  of  a 
son  Horus  who  avenged  his  murder  on  Set ;  and  of 
a  jackal-headed  Anubis  who  helped  in  these  proceed- 
ings. The  chief  seat  of  the  worship  of  Osiris  was 
Abydos ;  and  the  supposition  that  his  head  had  been 
buried  there  probably  was  suggested  by  this. 

Osiris  was  sometimes  represented  by  a  ram,  some- 
times by  a  leafless  tree,  but  ordinarily  as  a  man,  and, 


74  BELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

indeed,  as  a  mummy,  except  that  his  arms  are  free. 
This  representation  accords  with  the  theory  that  he 
was  the  first  who  died,  and  also  the  first  who,  by 
being  embalmed,  secured  immortality.  Those  who 
inquired  further  into  his  history  discovered  that  he 
was  a  king,  and,  indeed,  a  virtuous  king  ;  naturally 
the  country  over  which  he  ruled  was  Egypt.  The 
story  of  his  fate,  as  told  by  Plutarch,  need  not  be 
repeated  here  ;  it  has  often  been  translated  and  com- 
mented upon.  Traits  common  to  many  fables  are 
found  in  it  :  the  enmity  between  brothers,  the  affec- 
tion of  a  wife  being  stronger  than  death,  the  son  who 
avenges  his  father ;  not  a  little  of  the  coarseness  that 
characterises  old  mythology  is  revealed  in  some  forms 
of  it  also.  The  resourcefulness  of  mythology  is  also 
shown  in  the  discovery  of  parts  for  the  individual 
actors.  When  the  doctrine  of  an  after  life  sprang  up 
in  some  such  manner  as  that  sketched  above,  the 
poets  had  to  assign  these  characters  parts  in  that 
new  world  :  Osiris  was  naturally  made  its  chief  god  ; 
the  roles  of  the  others  were  assigned  with  such  in- 
genuity as  the  poets  or  artists  could  employ. 

It  is  remarkable  that  in  the  funeral  rites  every 
corpse  played  the  part  of  Osiris.  At  times,  indeed, 
the  Osiris  was  regarded  as  a  part  of  the  personality, 
similar  to  the  "  double,"  the  soul,  the  shadow,  the 
name,  etc.,  into  which  the  Egyptian  psychology 
divided  the  man.  Perhaps  the  theory  that  the  gods 
could  be  easily  deceived  was  at  work  here.  Where 
totems  are  still  reverenced  evil  powers  are  some- 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  75 

times  quelled  by  dressing  the  child  as  the  clan  totem, 
or  making  it  sham  some  process  connected  with  the 
totem  animal.  By  pretending  to  be  Osiris  a  man 
might  perhaps  secure  for  himself  the  privileges  which 
that  hero  had  enjoyed.  At  a  late  period  of  Egyptian 
history  Osiris  had  become  the  national  god,  his  cult 
taking  precedence  of  all  the  others.  This  probably 
took  place  after  the  national  independence  had  been 
finally  lost,  when  the  god  who  enters  most  into  the 
private  life  of  each  individual  has  an  advantage  over 
those  worshipped  by  a  conquering  State.  The  wail- 
ing for  his  death  constituted  the  national  fast.  This 
was  associated  by  some  with  the  burying  of  the  seed 
in  the  ground,  by  others  with  the  weakening  of  the 
sun,  whence  his  death  day  was  sometimes  dated  as 
the  shortest  day  in  the  year. 

We  suppose  then  that  Egyptian  polytheism  is 
partly  produced  by  accident,  partly  by  conscious 
speculation.  Researches  into  totemism  have  shown 
that  the  choice  of  a  totem  animal  is  often  accidental ; 
there  are  communities  in  which  a  man's  future  guide 
is  revealed  to  him  in  a  dream,  or  is  the  animal  which 
happens  to  remain  when  the  pictures  of  others  have 
been  rubbed  out  at  the  time  of  his  birth.  Frazer 
regards  the  totem  as  in  origin  the  place  where  a  man 
keeps  his  soul.  The  processes  by  which  the  animal 
becomes  the  embodiment  of  a  god,  by  which  a  god 
increases  in  power  and  sublimity,  and  by  which  a  god 
is  thought  of  in  human  form,  are  familiar  in  many 
civilised  communities.    When  a  number  of  tribes  pos- 


76  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

sessing  deities  are  formed  into  a  peaceful  fraternity, 
their  deities  can  either  be  identified  or  they  can  be 
ranged  in  some  sort  of  order  and  made  members 
of  some  sort  of  family.  The  original  respect  paid  to 
an  animal  may  have  been  due  to  the  theory  that  it 
contained  a  man's  soul,  or  that  each  member  of  the 
tribe  was  represented  by  one  member  of  the  species ; 
and  this  respect  would  be  perpetuated,  though  reasons 
according  with  the  progress  of  education  would  have 
to  be  devised  to  account  for  it.  The  practices  which 
originated  in  various  ways  would  ordinarily  provide 
the  material  for  speculation  on  the  nature  of  the 
person  to  whom  the  ceremony  was  referred;  but 
the  individual  acts  of  combination,  of  identification 
of  different  persons,  of  interpretation  of  different 
customs  are  rarely  preserved.  We  may  be  sure 
that  the  persons  who  hit  upon  them  and  persuaded 
others  of  their  correctness  were  highly  gratified 
thereby. 

Brugsch  thought  the  process  took  ordinarily  one 
of  three  directions  :  the  euhemeristic  process,  which 
makes  of  the  god  a  historical  character,  and  inter- 
prets supernatural  stories  connected  with  him  as 
commonplace  events  coloured  by  metaphorical  lan- 
guage, or  in  some  way  or  other  misunderstood  ;  the 
moralising  process,  in  which  the  actors  are  supposed 
to  be  models  of  the  way  in  which  men  should  act, 
as,  e.g.,  Isis,  regarded  as  the  model  spouse,  or 
Horus  as  the  model  son  ;  and  the  cosmological 
process,  in  which  the  figures  are  thought  to  stand 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  77 

for  portions  of  the  universe,  and  the  acts  ascribed 
to  them  to  be  figurative  expressions  for  the  processes 
of  nature.  None  of  these  processes  is  either  new 
or  unfamiliar  ;  and  with  the  aid  of  one  or  other  of 
the  three  the  problem  of  reducing  a  set  of  totems  to 
a  highly  organised  theological  system  could  in  time 
be  accomplished.  The  euhemeristic  process,  which 
is  often  associated  with  irreverence  and  rationalism, 
is  less  liable  to  that  reproach  when  a  god  is  thought 
of  as  only  superior  to  man  in  a  small  degree,  and 
when  there  is  no  known  objection  to  making  him 
act  as  man  acts.  If,  therefore,  we  should  admire 
the  wisdom  of  the  Egyptian  priests,  this  should  be 
less  for  their  hitting  on  obvious  ways  of  building 
up  a  theology  than  for  their  permitting  the  religion 
to  make  real  progress  with  but  little  violation  to 
the  feelings  of  the  devotees.  For  it  is  the  retention 
of  the  practice  about  which  men  are  ordinarily 
susceptible,  whereas  the  explanation  of  the  practice 
may  be  left  to  those  who  have  leisure  to  concern 
themselves  with  abstruse  questions.  So  long,  there- 
fore, as  the  advance  of  philosophy  did  not  interfere 
with  the  reverence  paid  to  bulls,  cats,  crocodiles, 
hawks,  etc.,  we  may  well  believe  that  the  greater 
part  of  the  Egyptian  nation  cared  little  whether  their 
religion  was  pantheism,  or  polytheism,  or  mono- 
theism. A  break  in  the  custom  would  have  been 
felt,  whereas  a  change  in  the  theory  would  have 
affected  only  a  few.  That  the  Egyptian  religion 
had  its  epochs  of  war  and  tumult  seems  likely ;  but 


78  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

the  course  followed  by  the  priests  would  appear  to 
have  rendered  such  occasions  uncommon. 

5.  The  Sun  God. — One  suggestion  for  the  mean- 
ing of  the  names  of  the  gods  was,  as  has  been  seen, 
astronomical  and  cosmological.  That  which  identified 
the  gods  with  the  sun  seems  to  have  found  favour 
from  an  early  time.  The  sun  (Ra)  may  perhaps 
have  been  a  tribal  totem  ;  as  such  he  is  still  in  use. 
When  a  god  was  separated  from  an  animal,  and 
regarded  as  a  source  of  profit  and  loss,  the  theory 
that  the  sun  was  what  was  meant  had  great  plausi- 
bility, especially  in  a  country  which  gives  such 
striking  evidence  of  the  power  of  the  sun  to  affect 
both.  Coupled  with  a  god  Amen,  chief  deity  of 
Thebes,  he  became  the  chief  god  of  Egypt  at  the  time 
of  the  Theban  dynasties,  and  especially  when,  owing 
to  the  expulsion  of  the  Hyksos,  his  worshippers  were 
in  special  favour.  His  symbol  was  often  the  sparrow- 
hawk,  a  bird  that  had  probably  been  the  totem  of 
some  tribe,  which  underwent  the  process  of  enlight- 
enment that  has  been  sketched.  Hymns  to  Amen- 
Ra  are  preserved,  in  which  the  god's  praises  are 
sung,  and  in  which  the  glory  of  the  sun  is  poetically 
described.  The  language  used  in  these  hymns  has 
suggested  the  idea  that  their  authors  were  mono- 
theists.  So  thoroughly  do  they  associate  with  his 
name  the  attributes  of  an  Almighty  Creator.  With 
the  progress  of  Egyptian  history  it  appears  to  have 
become  natural  to  explain  each  god  as  meaning  the 
sun — thus  the  crocodile  Sebek  and  Osiris  (in  spite  of 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  79 

his  association  with  death)  were  both  at  one  time  so 
explained.  His  worship  was  for  a  time  suspended 
by  the  King  Amen-Hotep  IV.,  who  substituted  for 
it  the  worship  of  the  sun's  disc  (called  Aten,  after 
which  the  king  renamed  himself),  but  was  reinstated 
afterwards.  So  serious  was  this  reform  that  this 
king  abandoned  the  capital,  Thebes,  with  which  the 
worship  of  Amen-Ra  was  particularly  associated,  to 
found  a  new  capital. 

The  worship  of  the  sun  led  to  some  geographical 
speculation.  Since  travelling  was  usually  done  by 
boat,  the  sun  was  supposed  to  perform  his  journey 
in  a  boat,  or  series  of  boats,  built  like  those  in  use 
on  the  Nile.  This  boat  went  on  a  heavenly  river, 
which,  according  to  some,  flowed  over  a  heaven  of 
iron.  The  fancy  of  poets  provided  him  with  com- 
panions, and  the  book  Am-Duat  depicted  his  journey 
during  the  night.  Each  hour  was  devoted  to  a 
separate  region ;  in  these  regions  the  sun,  like  a 
Pharaoh,  deposited  some  of  his  faithful  followers, 
to  serve  as  colonists  for  the  maintenance  of  his 
power.  But  according  to  some  accounts  each  day 
a  new  sun  was  born — in  a  lotus-flower,  perhaps 
because  the  birth  of  fire  from  water  was  only  possible 
with  the  aid  of  some  intermediary. 

The  euhemeristic  explanation  also  worked  on  the 
theory  that  the  sun  was  not  itself  god,  but  was  the 
instrument  or  home  of  a  god.  Myths  concerning 
Ra  were  told,  not  differing  in  style  from  those  told 
of  Osiris,  and,  indeed,  bringing  in  some  of  the  same 


80  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

characters.  Ra,  like  Osiris,  had  at  one  time  reigned 
on  earth  ;  he  had  been  wounded,  and  Isis  had  healed 
him,  on  condition,  however,  of  learning  his  mys- 
terious name.  He  had  left  the  earth  out  of  disgust, 
to  take  up  his  residence  in  the  sun.  He  had  desired 
to  destroy  the  whole  of  the  human  race,  but  had 
been  induced  to  let  them  remain. 

Finally,  the  worship  of  the  sun  was  brought  into 
the  doctrine  of  immortality.  The  setting  of  the  sun 
in  the  west  and  his  rising  in  the  east  offered  an 
obvious  analogy  to  the  fate  of  the  human  being — 
accentuated  by  the  fact  that  the  cities  of  the  dead 
were  west  of  the  Nile,  whereas  the  cities  of  the  living 
were  mostly  on  the  east.  The  hours  of  night  were 
in  part  identified  with,  in  part  regarded  as  analogous 
to,  the  period  after  death. 

Moon  and  star  worship  are  also  represented  in 
the  Egyptian  religion,  it  would  seem,  rather  as 
theories  of  the  nature  of  gods  already  known  than 
as  an  independent  religious  system.  The  stars  were, 
indeed,  thought  to  be  lamps  suspended  from  the 
sky.  In  some  of  the  representations  the  cord  by 
which  they  hang  can  easily  be  traced.  Hence  the 
doctrine  which  connected  Isis  and  Osiris  with  stars 
was  probably  a  case  of  theological  speculation.  In 
the  identification  of  Isis  with  the  moon  such  specula- 
tion can  be  traced  with  ease  ;  owing  to  the  connection 
of  the  month  with  feminine  matters  there  is  a  pretty 
common  tendency  to  make  all  goddesses  moon  god- 
desses.   In  the  character  of  moon  goddess  Isis  was 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  81 

represented  with  horns,  and  a  fable  that  when  her 
head  had  been  removed  a  cow's  head  was  substi- 
tuted accounted  for  the  change.  The  goddess  who 
had  a  better  right  to  the  cow's  head  was  Hathor 
of  Denderah. 

Theological  speculation  further  grouped  the  gods 
and  goddesses  in  sets,  somewhat  as  the  Greek  and 
Roman  theologians  grouped  theirs.  A  common 
scheme  gave  triads — a  god,  a  goddess,  and  their  son ; 
the  last,  as  the  reproduction  of  his  father,  counted  as 
the  husband  of  his  mother.  Of  the  ennead,  or  group 
of  nine,  Maspero  has  given  an  ingenious  analysis. 
It  was  based  on  cosmological  speculation.  Its  figures 
included  an  abyss  in  which  the  heaven  and  earth  had 
originally  lain ;  a  power  that  sundered  them,  probably 
the  air ;  man,  as  the  son  of  heaven  and  earth,  and, 
since  man  dies,  some  one  to  kill  him  (Set) ;  and 
wives  for  all  the  males.  This  was  the  ennead  of  the 
theologians  of  On,  in  which  the  chief  god  was  a 
creator,  Atoum.  As  other  States  adopted  the  idea  of 
the  ennead  they  substituted  for  Atoum  the  god  they 
held  in  highest  honour ;  at  Memphis  the  place  was 
given  to  Ptah,  at  Thebes  to  Amen,  at  Sais  to  Neith, 
at  Denderah  to  Hathor.  At  Hermopolis  the  chief 
deity  was  Thoth,  originally  an  ape  totem  ;  he,  how- 
ever, was  thought  not -to  generate,  or  make,  as  other 
gods,  but  to  create  by  the  power  of  the  voice.  There 
was  then  in  this  ennead  no  room  for  other  actors,  and 
the  eight  remaining  gods  were  thought  to  be  the  four 
pillars  that  support  the  sky  at  its  four  corners,  with 


82  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

a  goddess  as  a  mate  for  each,  her  name  being  gram- 
matically formed  from  that  of  the  god.  These  eight 
gods  were  thought  of  as  one  god,  the  Eight,  and 
perhaps  gave  rise  to  the  deity  Eshmun,  whom  we 
have  met  with  as  a  Phoenician  god. 

The  account  then  given  of  the  origin  of  the  heavens 
and  the  earth  was  not  dissimilar  to  that  given,  say, 
by  Hesiod,  in  treating  the  bodies  discussed  as  human 
beings,  and  making  them  parents  after  the  style  of 
human  parentage.  The  doctrine  of  an  abyss  which 
contained  the  germs  of  life  and  action  before  any 
evolution  is  also  common  to  many  systems.  These 
speculations  on  the  origin  of  things  constantly  confuse 
metaphorical  language  with  literal  language  in  order  to 
get  history  where  there  is  none.  Whether  the  names 
that  figure  in  the  cosmogony — Nun,  the  abyss  ; 
Shu,  the  air  ;  Nuit,  the  heaven  ;  Sibu,  the  earth — 
existed  before  the  myth  or  not  seems  uncertain  ; 
some  of  the  names  (e.g.,  Tafnut,  the  goddess  who 
sometimes  figures  as  the  wife  of  Shu)  seem  to  owe 
their  origin  to  etymological  necessity.  A  gap  is  dis- 
covered in  the  system,  and  a  name  invented  to  fill  it. 
In  the  triad  system  (as  in  the  ennead  of  Hermopolis) 
this  method  of  adding  to  the  Pantheon  is  very  ap- 
parent. Further,  when  the  theory  that  the  number  of 
the  gods  was  nine  had  gained  wide  acceptance,  the 
theologians  were  at  times  careless  about  the  mode  in 
which  the  number  was  filled  up,  or,  indeed,  whether 
exactly  nine,  etc.,  were  constituted  by  the  gods 
reckoned  to  it.     Most  of  these  groups  contain  deities 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  83 

that  are  evidently  factitious,  i.e.,  names  invented  by 
etymological  or  other  considerations  to  adjust  the 
figures. 

6.  Other  Deities. — The  history  of  the  Egyptian 
gods  is,  therefore,  one  of  extreme  complication, 
owing  to  the  length  of  time  during  which  speculation 
was  added  to  speculation,  and  theories  naturally 
inconsistent  were  in  some  way  or  other  harmonised. 
Most  of  the  gods  were  represented  by  figures  only 
partly  human  ;  usually  the  body  was  human,  but 
the  head  that  of  a  bird,  a  beast  or  a  reptile.  As  a 
means  of  distinguishing  different  gods  they  were 
assigned  a  variety  of  functions.  The  god  Thoth,  of 
Hermopolis,  represented  with  an  ibis's  head,  was 
thus  made  the  secretary  of  the  gods ;  writing  was 
supposed  to  be  his  invention  ;  at  the  final  judgment 
he  acted  as  recorder.  In  some  places  the  native  cult 
recognised  a  god  of  the  living  as  well  as  a  god  of 
the  dead  ;  and  the  goddesses  everywhere  had  charge 
of  matters  specially  affecting  females.  Ptah  was  sup- 
posed to  look  after  the  smelter's  art,  Chnum  after  the 
potter's.  Probably  the  art  assigned  to  the  god  was 
that  which  was  practised  by  the  tribe  with  whom  he 
counted  as  the  chief  object  of  adoration  ;  when  the 
theologians  combined  the  gods  in  a  community  these 
functions  would  be  assigned  to  them  with  justice.  At 
an  early  period  evil-doing  gods  as  well  as  well-doing 
gods  were  worshipped.  Hence  Set,  identified  with 
the  power  of  mischief,  had  his  devotees  ;  he  was, 
however,  thought  to  be  the  chief  god  of  the  foreign 


84  KELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

Hyksos,  and  after  their  expulsion  was  regarded  with 
horror,  and  his  worship  gradually  ceased.  The 
worship  of  the  crocodile  was  similarly  confined  to 
a  few  States  ;  and  indeed  the  god  who  was  identified 
with  the  crocodile  was  assigned  by  no  means  a 
malevolent  part  in  the  mythology  :  he  was  supposed 
to  have  aided  Horus  in  his  fight  with  Set,  and  to 
have  restored  to  the  dead  Osiris  the  use  of  his  eyes 
and  mouth.  His  home  was  supposed  to  be  the 
mountain  Bak,  which  forms  the  stay  of  heaven  to- 
wards the  east.  He  opened  the  gates  of  the  East 
to  the  new-born  sun  god,  with  whom  he  at  one  time 
was  identified.  In  his  case  clearly  we  have  a  naive 
worship  of  the  crocodile,  tempered  down  by  specu- 
lation till  the  original  character  of  the  worship  is 
absolutely  concealed. 

Horus  is  the  name  for  two  gods  distinguished  by 
most  Egyptologists.  One  of  these,  the  son  of  Osiris 
and  Isis,  was  the  avenger  of  his  father,  and  helped 
to  secure  him  immortality.  This  god's  introduction 
to  the  Pantheon  may  have  been  due  to  mythological 
necessity.  The  other  was  thought  to  share  the  world 
with  Set,  with  whom  he  at  times  actually  shared 
a  temple.  He  was  armed  with  iron,  the  metal  which 
was  supposed  to  fall  from  heaven,  and  accompanied 
by  smiths,  who  forged  his  weapons,  though  they  did 
not  help  him  to  fight.  They  were  represented  on 
earth  by  a  college  or  corporation  of  smiths,  who  had 
to  look  after  the  god's  temple.  His  seat  was  at 
Edfu.     At  times  identified  with  the  sun  god,  he  was 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  85 

called  the  son  or  the  soul  of  Ea,  and  represented  by 
his  symbol,  the  sparrow-hawk. 

Hapi,  the  Nile  god,  was  at  times,  as  we  have  seen, 
identified  with  Osiris,  and  was  represented  as  a  man 
with  female  breasts,  bearing  gifts  in  his  hands  and 
a  lotus  on  his  head.  His  worship  was  naturally 
common  throughout  Egypt. 

From  the  time  of  the  unification  of  Egypt  the 
tendency  towards  having  a  national  god  displayed 
itself,  and  at  first  Amen-Ea  was  so  regarded,  but 
in  later  times  Osiris.  The  need  for  a  being  in  some 
aspects  man  and  in  some  god  was  satisfied  by  this 
conception  in  the  form  in  which  Egyptian  theology 
worked  it  out,  and  (according  to  Dr.  Budge)  prepared 
Egypt  for  Christianity  as  no  other  country  was  pre- 
pared for  it.  The  group  that  grew  up  round  Osiris 
consisted,  as  we  have  seen,  of  persons  represented  at 
the  funeral  ceremonies — persons  whose  part  in  that 
most  memorable  history  had  been  of  high  importance, 
and  whose  assistance  was  required  by  each  person  who 
hoped  to  reach  the  world  beyond  the  grave.  As  the 
details  of  the  transformation  scene  were  worked  out, 
the  worship  of  Osiris  had  both  a  spiritualising  and  a 
moralising  value.  Conducted  before  Osiris,  the  dead 
man  would  have  to  give  an  account  of  his  works, 
would  have  to  answer  truly  a  negative  catechism, 
in  which  sins  were  enumerated  of  which  he  would 
have  to  declare  himself  innocent,  after  which  his  heart 
would  be  weighed  that  it  might  be  seen  if  he  had 
spoken  truly.    Although  means  were  devised  to  silence 


86  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

accusers  at  that  trial  scene,  and  knowledge  of  the 
names  of  the  judges  would  itself  be  something  in  the 
way  of  preparation,  the  promise  of  a  judgment  after 
death  was  without  doubt  a  discovery  of  high  import- 
ance for  stimulating  the  moral  sense.  With  the 
tendency  of  Egyptian  theology  to  occupy  itself  more 
and  more  with  the  world  beyond  the  grave,  Osiris 
came  to  occupy  men's  minds  more  than  all  other 
deities.  In  him  the  great  secret  of  overcoming  death 
had  been  solved. 

The  nature  of  the  Egyptian  Pantheon  was  by  no 
means  such  as  to  prevent  the  admixture  of  foreign 
cults.  The  great  variety  of  the  Egyptian  deities  on 
the  one  hand  offered  the  means  of  easy  identification 
for  most  foreign  gods  ;  and  ordinarily  the  Egyptians 
had  more  to  tell  foreigners  about  them  than  they 
could  learn  from  them.  Certain  foreign  names, 
such  as  those  of  Eeshef  and  Ashtoreth,  are  found 
occasionally  in  later  times  in  the  Egyptian  Pantheon  : 
and  certain  other  deities  are  thought  by  experts  to 
have  been  borrowed  from  Nubians.  Of  the  deifica- 
tion of  individual  men  there  are  probably  few  traces, 
except  that  the  king  was  ex  officio  an  impersonation 
of  a  god  ;  he  was  regarded  as  the  actual  and  not 
merely  the  nominal  son  of  Ra.  The  fact,  moreover, 
that  the  Egyptian  god  could  sicken  and  die  like  a 
man  rendered  euhemeristic  explanations  of  the 
origin  of  the  gods  comparatively  easy.  The  dynasty 
of  gods  was  supposed  to  have  reigned  on  earth 
before  the  dynasties   of   men.      Osiris  himself  was 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  87 

a   beneficent    King    of    Egypt,    and    his    brother    a 
traitor. 

7.  FestiYals. — The  honours  paid  by  the  Egyptians 
to  their  gods  do  not  differ  materially  from  those 
customary  in  other  countries.  The  gods  were 
housed  and  fed  in  a  costly  style ;  and  the  god  of  a 
department  habitually  admitted  other  gods  to  share 
his  house.  The  regular  provision  of  sacrifices  was 
secured,  as  elsewhere,  by  settlements  of  land  on 
temples  ;  and  where  the  god  was  represented  by  a 
living  animal  it  was  tolerably  easy  to  discover  what 
sort  of  comfort  he  most  desired.  The  right  of  offer- 
ing to  a  god  seems  in  theory  to  have  belonged  to 
every  Egyptian,  though  naturally  the  science  of  the 
due  ceremonial  came  in  time  to  be  the  exclusive 
possession  of  a  hereditary  priesthood.  Special  feasts 
with  processions  in  honour  of  the  chief  gods  were 
also  common.  Every  year  from  the  8th  to  the  11th 
November  the  mourning  for  the  dead  Osiris  was 
celebrated.  It  began  with  the  feast  of  ploughing, 
i.e.,  the  celebration  of  the  commencement  of  agri- 
cultural operations  for  the  winter.  On  the  fourth 
day  Osiris  was  formally  buried,  and  dirges  sung  by 
women  representing  Isis  and  Nephthys.  On  the 
fifth  day  there  was  a  procession  round  the  town, 
and  on  the  last  his  entombment  was  finished.  Of 
many  other  feasts  connected  with  the  stories  of  Isis 
and  Osiris,  and  with  the  recurrence  of  astronomical 
phenomena  and  agricultural  operations,  we  read  in 
the  works  of  Greek  writers.     Feasts  were  celebrated 


88  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

as  in  most  countries  by  concourses  of  people,  by 
offerings  to  the  gods,  the  burning  of  torches,  and 
music.  It  is  probable  that  the  chief  god  of  each 
department  had  honour  of  this  or  analogous  sorts 
paid  him  at  some  season  of  the  year. 

The  priests  are  declared  by  some  writers  to  have 
constituted  a  caste  in  Egypt,  as  they  do  in  India  ; 
but  this  statement  is  not  free  from  difficulty.  They 
appear  in  any  case  to  have  formed  a  large  and 
important  portion  of  the  population,  and  to  have 
been  employed  not  only  at  the  sanctuaries  of  the 
gods,  but  also  at  the  tombs  of  the  wealthier  mem- 
bers of  the  community,  where  they  had  to  keep  up 
a  supply  of  food  for  the  dead.  At  the  great  religious 
centres  there  were  colleges  whose  speculations  marked 
the  progress  of  the  religion.  Greek  writers  have 
much  to  tell  of  the  rules  by  which  the  life  of  the 
priests  was  regulated,  of  their  frequent  washings 
and  fastings,  of  their  dress  of  linen  or  cotton,  and 
of  the  roughness  of  their  accommodation.  They 
were  without  doubt  the  learned  profession  of  Egypt : 
the  Egyptian  writing  was  probably  at  all  times  a 
priestly  secret — the  ordinary  name  for  the  two  oldest 
forms  of  writing  implies  this.  The  power  they  ob- 
tained from  this  monopoly  led  them  at  ordinary 
times  to  be  entrusted  with  judicial  functions,  and 
at  times  to  obtain  supreme  power  in  the  State.  To 
the  office  of  priestess  women  of  the  highest  families 
in  the  country  aspired. 

Of  the  objects  used  in  devotion   the   sistrum  or 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  89 

rattle  used  in  the  worship  of  Isis  attracted  notice 
in  ancient  times  ;  it  was  generally  from  "  eight  to 
sixteen  or  eighteen  inches  in  length  and  entirely  of 
bronze  or  brass "  (Wilkinson).  Being  laden  with 
rings  on  movable  bars,  it  gave  a  jingling  noise 
when  shaken  ;  and  it  was  held  by  women  as  they 
accompanied  the  priests  to  the  altar.  Theoretically 
its  purpose  was  to  frighten  away  the  evil  spirit ; 
but  it  may  have  originally  been  employed  in  some 
agricultural  operations,  and  thence  have  been  intro- 
duced into  or  maintained  in  a  religious  ceremony. 

The  familiar  obelisk,  often  dedicated  to  the  sun, 
is  regarded  by  some  as  having  originally  no  religious 
meaning,  but  as  a  place  for  the  name  of  the  owner 
of  a  temple  or  other  residence.  The  earliest  examples 
appear,  however,  to  have  been  erected  in  the  sun's 
honour. 

8.  Sacred  Books. — The  Egyptian  sacred  books 
were  not  unknown  to  the  writers  of  classical  an- 
tiquity. Of  these  the  most  important  is  the  Book 
of  the  Dead,  which  exists  in  a  great  number  of 
recensions  of  varying  age  and  content.  It  was  the 
custom  to  deposit  a  portion  of  it  with  each  mummy. 
To  him  it  was  to  serve  as  a  hand-book  to  the  next 
world,  each  chapter  containing  the  spells  whereby 
he  was  to  secure  some  advantage  or  other  in  the 
world  beyond  the  grave.  The  whole  work  was  sup- 
posed to  have  been  composed  by  the  god  Thoth.  Its 
compilation  covered  many  ages,  fresh  chapters  being 
continually  composed,  while  to  the  matter  contained 


90  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

in  the  older  texts  comments  and  super-comments 
were  frequently  added.  As  a  handbook  of  morals  it  is 
remarkable  for  the  negative  confession,  or  collection 
of  forty-two  crimes  which  the  dead  man  must  claim 
before  the  tribunal  of  Osiris  to  have  avoided.  The 
number  of  offences  seems  to  have  been  taken  from 
the  number  of  nomic  gods,  and  varies  with  different 
calculations  ;  but  the  moral  tone  of  these  precepts 
has  been  deservedly  praised.  The  dead  man,  before 
being  declared  innocent,  must  prove  himself  guiltless 
of  most  of  the  sins  against  his  neighbour  which  a 
modern  code  would  recognise  ;  the  distribution  of 
offences  between  the  moral  law  and  the  ceremonial 
law  is  very  much  to  the  advantage  of  the  former. 
Violence,  fraud,  and  in  general  the  gratification  of 
passions  figure  among  the  acts  which  this  negative 
confession  shows  to  have  been  forbidden. 

The  theory  of  a  final  judgment  is  said  to  go  back  to 
immemorial  antiquity,  and,  if  the  ordinary  Egyptian 
was  instructed  in  its  importance,  and  in  the  questions 
which  he  would  there  have  to  answer,  its  value  as  a 
moral  sanction  must  have  been  considerable.  The 
pictures  in  which  the  judgment  of  the  dead  is  de- 
scribed introduce  many  accessories  capable  of  em- 
phasising its  importance.  Gods  to  the  number  of 
the  declarations  which  the  dead  man  must  make 
are  introduced.  The  dead  man  is  bound  to  call 
each  by  his  mystic  name.  Part  of  the  help  given 
him  by  the  sacred  book  lay  in  the  fact  of  its  tell- 
ing him  the  names  of  the  beings  whom  he  would 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  91 

encounter.  It  was  thought  that  knowledge  of  the 
name  gave  the  dead  man  some  sort  of  power  of 
him  whose  name  it  was.  The  weighing  of  the  heart 
of  the  dead  man  is  represented  as  executed  in  the 
presence  of  a  whole  number  of  deities.  There  are 
those  present  to  whose  care  were  committed  those 
parts  of  the  body  which  were  not  fit  to  be  embalmed 
with  it.  Even  when  the  questions  were  asked  and  the 
judgment  was  over  the  difficulties  were  not  over  that 
the  dead  man  would  have  to  encounter.  He  was, 
however,  pronounced  "true  of  voice,"  i.e.,  capable 
of  pronouncing  correctly  the  spells  which  would  cause 
the  doors  through  which  he  must  yet  pass  to  fly 
open  ;  in  these  theories  no  less  importance  was 
attached  to  the  correctness  with  which  the  words 
of  power  were  uttered  than  to  the  words  them- 
selves. 

Much  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead  is  below  the  high 
and  spiritual  standard  of  the  passages  that  deal  with 
the  final  judgment.  Knowledge  of  names  and  know- 
ledge of  the  identity  of  one  god  with  another  seem 
to  constitute  a  large  portion  of  the  saving  wisdom. 
Many  of  the  spells  clearly  belong  to  a  period  when 
the  preservation  of  the  body  was  still  the  end  most 
desired,  when  the  purpose  of  preserving  it  from  the 
worm  was  still  regarded  as  the  ultimate  aim  of  the 
embalming  process.  Some  are  said  to  go  back  to  a 
yet  more  barbarous  epoch.  But  the  continuance  of 
this  book  as  the  dead  man's  guide  through  so  astound- 
ing a  period,  in  spite  of  accretions  and  alterations, 


92  KELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

must  be  regarded  as  the  greatest  triumph  of  con- 
servatism which  the  history  of  religion  can  show. 

Another  book  to  which  reference  has  been  made, 
the  Am-Duat5  was  buried  with  the  priests  of  On, 
and,  as  we  have  seen,  explains  the  course  of  the  sun 
through  the  night,  and  gives  the  knowledge  that 
those  who  went  in  the  sun's  boat  might  find  helpful. 
The  notion  of  supreme  and  ultimate  felicity  which 
it  embodies  is  that  of  accompanying  the  sun  for  ever 
on  his  course. 

Other  ancient  Egyptian  literature  contains  precepts 
not  altogether  unlike  those  of  the  Wisdom  literature 
in  style.  Some  of  these  claim  an  almost  fabulous 
antiquity,  and  the  mode  in  which  the  god  is  spoken 
of  in  them  has  led  to  the  opinion  that  the  Egyptians 
at  an  extremely  early  period  had  risen  to  the  concep- 
tion of  God  as  apart  from  the  gods,  and  to  ascribe  to 
Him  an  interest  in  morality. 

In  other  books  of  a  semi-sacred  character  the  gods 
are  introduced  as  acting  somewhat  as  they  act  in  the 
Indian  drama  or  the  old  Greek  tales.  They  consti- 
tute a  community  existing  by  the  side  of  the  human 
community  with  somewhat  greater  powers,  but  also 
with  great  limitations.  In  the  hymns  which  ascribe 
to  each  god  universal  power  we  must,  therefore,  see 
in  part  the  flattery  of  devotees,  in  part  the  result  of 
the  difficulty  of  predicating  anything  definite  about 
imaginary  beings. 

9.  Mysticism.  —  The  Egyptians  interested  the 
classical   nations   of   antiquity  partly  on   account  of 


THE  RELIGION  OF  EGYPT  93 

the  enormous  antiquity  which  the  former  with  justice 
claimed  for  their  civilisation,  in  part  because  of  the 
elaborate  development  which  their  religious  system 
had  attained.  It  is  probable  that  an  Egyptian  lived 
in  a  more  mystic  atmosphere  than  that  which  en- 
vironed any  other  ancient  race,  and  that  their  leading 
doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  greatly  in- 
fluenced their  lives.  It  is  clear  that  the  period  of 
religious  speculation  which  in  Greece  began  in  the 
fifth  century  B.C.  had  in  Egypt  commenced  untold 
centuries  before;  and  even  if  the  Egyptian  studies 
produced  nothing  to  compare  in  value  with  the  results 
of  Greek  philosophy,  it  is  not  unnatural  that  the 
former  should  regard  the  latter  as  beginners.  That 
the  Israelites  should  have  taken  away  from  Egypt 
nothing  but  the  memory  of  wrong,  when  the  classical 
nations  learnt  so  much  from  cursory  visits,  is  remark- 
able ;  but  history  seems  to  show  that  it  is  only  where 
there  is  a  liberal  measure  of  religious  and  political 
toleration  that  the  Israelites  are  willing  to  learn  from 
their  patrons. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA. 

1.  Zoroaster.— The  Old  Testament  makes  but  few 
allusions  to  the  religion  of  Persia,  but  it  implies  that 
Persian  kings,  though  not  themselves  acquainted  with 
the  true  God,  still  were  pleased  to  pay  reverence  to 
the  seat  of  His  worship.  Their  own  religion  would 
appear  to  have  originated  not  in  Persia,  but  in  Media, 
and  to  have  been  adopted  by  the  Persians,  perhaps 
after  their  acquisition  of  the  latter  country.  It  re- 
sembled the  religion  of  the  Jews  in  some  striking 
features,  which  will  appear  as  we  proceed.  Like  the 
religion  of  Moses,  it  was  based  on  a  revelation.  The 
chief  god  was  supposed  to  have  revealed  his  will  to  a 
prophet,  Zarathustra  or  Zoroaster.  Authorities  are 
divided  on  the  question  whether  this  person  belongs 
to  the  region  of  myth  or  history.  Those  who  take 
the  latter  view  suppose  him  to  have  lived  at  least 
some  centuries  before  the  first  millennium  b.c.  Many 
places  claim  to  be  his  birthplace,  and  of  these  Rai,  or 
Ragha,  has  the  best  right  so  far  as  antiquity  is  con- 
cerned. 

In  the  sacred  books  (which  are  the  only  source  of 
information  that  can  be  used  for  this  question)  Zoro- 
(94) 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  95 

aster  varies  from  the  role  of  a  struggling  hero  to 
that  of  a  demi-god.  In  the  former  part  he  appears 
as  an  ally  of  a  king,  Vishtaspa,  with  helpers  and 
enemies  whom  he  occasionally  names.  His  political 
enemies  are  identified  with  the  cause  of  the  , gods, 
whose  worship  he  endeavours  to  suppress  ;  and  his 
career  appears  to  involve  some  bloodshed.  But  in 
many  parts  of  these  books  the  place  assigned  him  is 
far  more  exalted  than  that  of  hero  and  reformer.  He 
is  called  "  the  first  who  thought  what  was  good, 
spoke  what  was  good,  and  did  what  was  good  ;  the 
first  Priest,  the  first  Warrior,  the  first  Plougher  of  the 
ground ;  the  first  who  knew  and  the  first  who  taught ; 
the  first  who  possessed  and  took  possession  of. the 
Word  ;  the  first  who  in  the  material  world  pronounced 
the  praise  of  Asha  (divine  order)  ".  In  some  of  the 
hymns  the  role  assigned  him  is  very  similar  to  that  of 
an  ordinary  god  ;  like  them  by  sacrifice  he  procures 
extraordinary  powers.  At  his  birth  and  growth  the 
waters  and  the  plants  rejoiced  ;  and  all  the  creatures 
of  the  good  creation  cried  out,  Hail !  He  was  placed 
above  men  as  Sirius  is  placed  above  the  stars.  From 
the  first  he  was  brought  into  contact  with  the  power 
of  evil,  always  to  overcome  it  successfully.  The  latter 
endeavoured  to  kill  him  at  his  birth.  Presently  he 
appears  to  have  challenged  Zoroaster  to  a  contest 
of  riddles,  which  Zoroaster  succeeded  in  answering. 
Finally,  he  tempted  Zoroaster  by  offering  him  a 
reign  of  a  thousand  years.  These  experiences  led 
the  hero  to  seek  from  the  good  power  permanent  aid 


96  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

against  the  evil.  And  this  led  to  the  revelation  of  the 
Mazdean  books.  In  some  parts  of  these  Zoroaster 
is  represented  as  instructing  his  king ;  but  more  often 
he  is  himself  obtaining  instruction  from  his  god. 

2.  Sacred  Books,  —  The  sacred  books  of  the 
Zoroastrians  are  said  to  have  been  at  one  time  very 
numerous,  but  to  have  been  reduced  by  wanton  de- 
struction at  the  time  of  Alexander  the  Great,  and 
afterwards  by  the  Mohammedan  conquerors  of  Iran. 
Originally,  Zoroaster's  revelation  filled  twenty-one 
nosks,  or  books,  of  which  only  one  remains  entire. 
The  existing  collection  consists  of  five  parts,  called 
respectively  the  Vendidad,  Vispered,  Yasna,  Small 
Avesta,  and  Yashts.  There  can  be  no  question  that 
they  embody  materials  dating  from  very  different 
periods,  and  even  representing  very  different  theo- 
logical opinions.  The  first  of  these  is  a  collection 
of  laws,  stories,  and  spells,  or  prescriptions,  for  the 
treatment  of  a  variety  of  evils.  The  leading  idea 
of  the  whole  is  the  doctrine  of  cleanness.  The 
remaining  books  are  liturgical  in  character,  being 
partly  prayers  and  partly  hymns.  The  second 
and  third  are  sacrificial  litanies.  In  the  third 
are  included  some  hymns  called  Gathas  which  even 
some  modern  authorities  are  inclined  to  attribute 
to  Zoroaster  himself.  These  amid  much  prayer  and 
thanksgiving  recount  the  struggles  to  which  allusion 
has  been  made,  and  the  author's  hopes  and  fears. 
It  is  from  them  that  those  who  believe  Zoroaster 
to  have  been  a  historical  personage   judge  of   his 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  97 

character,  his  mental  insight  and  his  style.  One 
of  them  is  thought  to  be  a  poem  on  the  occasion  of 
the  marriage  of  Zoroaster's  daughter.  In  others 
friends  and  foes  are  freely  named.  Something  is 
said  in  them  of  the  history  of  creation,  and  the 
author's  doctrines  are  frequently  explained.  The 
style  is  everywhere  disjointed  and  supposed  to  ex- 
hibit an  unexampled  degree  of  succinctness.  The 
dialect  of  the  Gathas  is  different  from  that  of  the 
rest  of  the  Avesta  (the  name  by  which  the  whole 
collection  is  ordinarily  designated  for  the  sake  of 
brevity),  and  is  probably  older ;  though  some  regard 
the  difference  as  merely  local.  Both  dialects  are 
ordinarily  called  Zend,  a  name  which,  though  in- 
accurate, is  sanctioned  by  long  usage.  It  has  long 
been  a  dead  language :  no  other  monuments  of  it 
exist,  since  even  the  Persian  of  the  cuneiform  in- 
scriptions is  different.  All  these  dialects  are  closely 
allied  to  the  sacred  language  of  the  Hindus, 
Sanskrit. 

The  Parsees  have  a  considerable  literature  besides 
written  in  the  Pehlevi  language,  which  was  used 
by  the  later  Persian  Empire,  and  was  displaced  by 
Islam.  These  works  contain  a  certain  amount  of 
matter  which  was  professedly  to  be  found  in  those 
older  books  which  were  destroyed,  as  well  as  refer- 
ences to  current  traditions  in  elucidation  of  them, 
to  which  the  speculations  of  later  ages,  caused  by 
contact  with  the  theology  of  other  races,  have  been 

attached.      The   life  of   Zoroaster,  as   the   Parsees 
7 


98  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

ordinarily  write  it,  is  based  on  statements  embodied 
in  this  literature. 

The  question  of  the  historical  character  of  Zoroaster 
is  closely  connected  with  another — the  relation  of  the 
matter  contained  in  the  Avesta  to  that  embodied  in 
the  sacred  books  of  the  Hindus.  Is  Mazdeism  (as 
the  religion  of  Zoroaster  is  often  called)  a  develop- 
ment of  the  old  Indian  religion,  or  does  it  represent 
a  conscious  reform  ?  One  scholar  of  great  eminence 
held  that  Mazdeism  was  a  normal  development  of 
germs  contained  in  the  old  Indian  religion;  this 
would  leave  no  place  for  the  reforming  prophet.  A 
more  popular  view  is  that  the  characteristic  ideas 
and  practices  of  Mazdeism  were  the  work  of  a  re- 
forming prophet ;  but  that  much  of  the  older  religion 
remained,  being  too  deep-seated  in  the  affections  of 
the  people  to  be  permanently  displaced.  Practices 
and  cults  which  the  reformer  had  endeavoured  to 
destroy  had  then  survived  in  spite  of  him,  and, 
when  his  place  as  the  founder  of  the  religion  had 
been  secured,  were  even  attributed  to  his  initiation. 
This  is  so  common  an  occurrence  in  the  history  of 
religion  that  there  is  no  improbability  about  the 
assumption  in  this  case. 

This  assumption  suits  the  fact  that  several  of 
the  names  met  with  in  the  Indian  religion,  though 
they  recur  in  the  Zoroastrian  revelation,  have  quite 
different  and  even  contrary  values,  and  also  the 
fact  that  the  leading  ideas  of  the  systems  are 
decidedly   different.      Supposing   the  Gathas   to  be 


THE  KELIGION  OF  PERSIA  99 

ancient  and  genuine,  they  give  undoubted  evidence 
of  a  religious  struggle  which  would  be  the  occasion 
for  the  introduction  of  the  new  ideas.  But  of  the 
wrongs  and  rights  of  the  parties  engaged  in  it  it  is 
impossible  at  this  period  to  know  anything.  There 
is  no  probability  that  any  parts  of  the  Zoroastrian 
revelation  were  committed  to  writing  till  centuries 
after  they  were  composed. 

3.  Tower  of  Silence. — Just  as  the  mummy  is 
the  most  characteristic  institution  of  Egypt,  so  is  the 
tower  of  silence  of  the  religion  of  the  Parsees.  The 
fate  which  most  mankind  shun — to  be  devoured  by 
birds  and  wild  beasts — is  that  which  the  Mazdean 
endeavours  to  secure  for  his  corpse.  The  modes  of 
dealing  with  the  dead  known  to  other  countries — 
burying  and  burning — are  regarded  by  him  as  inex- 
piable sins;  they  were  both  special  inventions  of 
the  evil  one,  bent  as  usual  on  counteracting  the 
influence  of  the  good  power.  The  corpse  is  raised  on 
a  platform,  far  away  from  human  dwellings,  and 
fixed  to  it ;  arrangements  are  made  to  drain  off  all 
rain-water  that  may  fall  on  it ;  the  three  elements, 
fire,  water,  and  earth,  are  so  rendered  safe  from  its 
contamination.  It  is  remarkable  that  the  name  for 
these  places  in  the  native  language  (dakhma)  implies 
that  of  old  they  were  burning  places. 

We  place  this  institution  at  the  head  of  this  sketch, 
because  the  treatment  of  the  dead  involves  two 
theories  which  the  religious  system  works  out  with 
some  rigour.     One  of  these  is  the  horror  of  death — 


100  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

at  least  in  the  case  of  human  beings.  The  foul  smell 
attending  the  putrefaction  of  a  corpse  was  thought 
to  proceed  from  demons  who  surrounded  it.  But, 
even  before  death  had  taken  place,  its  preliminaries 
indicated  the  presence  of  an  evil  power,  and  therefore 
not  only  a  dead  man,  but  even  a  dying  man,  was 
tainting.  The  theory  of  the  power  of  evil  seems  to 
have  originated  from  the  power  of  corruption  in  the 
case  of  the  dead  body,  and  from  there  to  have  been 
analysed  in  a  variety  of  ways,  contradictions  that 
resulted  being  sometimes  neglected,  sometimes  har- 
monised in  some  way.  What  was  certain  was  that 
through  death  one  who  had  been  beneficial  became 
a  nuisance  to  the  community ;  and  this  must  be  due 
to  the  presence  of  another  person,  of  whom  the  foul 
smell  gave  evidence.  It  is  worthy  of  note  that  in 
some  languages  the  notions  of  good  and  evil  origin- 
ally signify  sweet  and  foul  smells. 

Another  principle  is  the  sanctity  of  the  elements. 
The  tower  of  silence  is  a  logical  application  of  a 
principle  not  unknown  elsewhere.  The  Mazdean 
disliked  tainting  the  earth  or  water,  just  as  some 
races  feared  to  offend  the  sun  by  leaving  a  corpse 
exposed  for  him  to  see.  The  man  who  exhumed 
most  corpses  of  men  and  dogs  delighted  the  earth 
most.  The  Dakhma  is  really  an  ingenious  inven- 
tion for  saving  the  elements ;  but  even  its  presence 
was  troubling  to  the  earth,  which  felt  sorest  pain 
where  it  was.  The  Mazdean  appears  to  have  aban- 
doned the  attempt  to  save  the  air  from  pollution; 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  101 

there  was  no  way  of  managing  that.  The  earth, 
too,  had  occasionally  to  be  tainted ;  but  the  water 
might  in  many  cases  be  saved.  Travelling  by  water 
was  therefore  at  times  unlawful ;  and  the  erection 
of  baths  as  well  as  the  performance  of  ablutions  in 
certain  cases  and  at  certain  periods  forbidden.  Of 
all  the  elements,  fire  was  that  which  most  easily 
admitted  of  protection. 

$.  Clean  and  Unclean. — The  distinction  between 
clean  and  unclean,  not  unknown  to  other  religions, 
is  fundamental  in  Mazdeism.  The  notion  of  clean 
probably  is  the  antithesis  of  corrupt,  which,  starting 
from  dead  bodies,  came  to  include  all  that  which 
the  living  body  throws  off,  nail-parings,  etc.  To 
the  pure  kingdom  then  belongs  life  and  whatever 
promotes  it ;  to  the  impure,  death,  and  whatever 
promotes  it.  The  difficulty  of  the  case  of  noxious 
animals  occurred,  and  was  answered;  they  belong 
to  the  kingdom  of  death,  and  since  alive  they  are  im- 
pure, when  dead  they  become  pure.  Killing  them 
therefore  is  a  virtuous  act. 

Though  this  doctrine  in  itself  has  little  to  do  with 
either  science  or  morality,  it  gave  aid  to  both.  That 
water  was  polluted  by  decaying  organic  matter  was 
put  in  the  code  not  as  a  fact  of  physics  but  as  a 
religious  principle ;  the  law  laid  down  the  quantity  of 
water  that  was  polluted  by  the  presence  of  a  corpse, 
and  strictly  forbade  the  drinking  of  such  water.  The 
doctrine  that  a  field  was  tainted  by  having  a  corpse 
buried   in   it   was   clearly  less   scientific.      Diseased 


102  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

persons  were  also  isolated,  for  fear  of  their  tainting 
others.  But  the  code  did  not  endeavour  to  distinguish 
the  infectious  from  the  non-infectious  disease,  nor 
those  ailments  which  were  the  result  of  age  or  sex 
from  those  which  indicated  disorder  in  the  frame. 
All  alike  were  the  creation  of  the  enemy ;  and  their 
number  is  given  as  10,000  save  one.  Two  gods, 
Thrita  and  Airyaman,  had  the  special  task  of  dealing 
with  them.  The  code  recognises  treatment  with  the 
knife  and  the  herb,  but  chiefly  by  the  spell.  The 
last  consists  in  a  form  of  words  which  (usually  taking 
the  form  of  a  gross  insult)  is  calculated  to  frighten 
the  demon  who  causes  the  trouble.  In  many  cases 
the  burning  of  a  fire  will  prevent  mischief. 

The  doctrine  that  cleanness  was  man's  greatest 
good,  uncleanness  his  greatest  evil,  led  to  a  scrupulous 
sexual  morality.  On  this  matter  the  A  vesta  deserves 
little  but  praise.  Eespect  for  the  principle  of  life  also 
led  to  the  humane  treatment  of  female  offenders; 
while  the  doctrine  of  the  uncleanness  of  death  caused 
barbarous  treatment  in  some  cases  to  be  dealt  to 
innocent  persons.  Like  the  Jewish  law,  that  of  Zo- 
roaster held  that  uncleanness  could  be  communicated 
to  vessels  and  garments.  Vessels  of  earth,  wood  and 
clay  were  unclean  for  ever  and  ever ;  but  those  of 
metal  or  stone  could  be  cleansed  with  the  aid  of 
gomez  (ox  urine),  to  which  wonderful  powers  were 
attributed.  In  this  regulation  we  perhaps  see  the 
trace  of  the  economical  instinct  which  is  a  powerful 
motive  in  the  Mazdean  religion. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  103 

The  selection  of  animals  to  be  regarded  as  clean  and 
unclean  was  based  to  some  extent  on  the  experience 
of  farmers,  to  some  on  myths.  Generally  speaking, 
those  animals  that  helped  the  farmer  were  the 
creation  of  Ahura- Mazda,  while  those  that  gave  him 
trouble  were  the  inventions  of  the  enemy.  The  wolf, 
the  snake,  the  gnat,  the  frog,  the  fly,  all  belong  to 
the  kingdom  of  evil.  Of  the  creatures  that  belong  to 
the  kingdom  of  Ahura-Mazda  the  dog  is  the  most 
important.  Some  portion  of  the  code  is  devoted  to 
the  description  of  the  different  sorts  of  dogs,  and  to 
the  general  characteristics  of  the  species.  In  some 
matters  the  dog  is  placed  on  a  level  with  man,  in 
others  it  is  regarded  as  vastly  his  superior.  If  a  dog 
goes  mad  and  does  mischief,  it  may  indeed  be  punished 
for  its  misconduct.  But  in  most  cases  killing  or  ill- 
treating  a  dog  is  regarded  as  a  very  grave  offence. 
Giving  bad  food  to  different  sorts  of  dogs  is  regarded 
as  the  same  sort  of  offence  as  giving  it  to  men  of 
analogous  rank.  Of  all  possible  crimes  the  killing  of 
a  water-dog  appears  to  be  the  most  terrible  in  its 
consequences.  Besides  20,000  stripes,  the  offender 
has  to  kill  20,000  snakes,  20,000  frogs,  20,000  flies, 
10,000  ants,  10,000  earth-worms,  and  to  perform 
an  endless  series  of  services  to  both  the  gods  and  the 
community,  of  which  "  throwing  twice  seven  bridges 
over  canals  "  is  not  the  hardest.  Apparently  Ahura- 
Mazda  regards  the  dog  as  his  most  valuable  ally  on 
earth  for  the  maintenance  of  order.  No  house  on 
earth,  he  says,  could  subsist  without  the  shepherd's 


104  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

dog  and  the  house-dog.  The  dog  came  very  near 
receiving  divine  honours. 

Its  value  for  religious  purposes  was  that  it  could 
drive  the  foul  spirit  out  of  a  corpse ;  and  "  at  the 
time  when  the  life  departs,  when  a  dog  is  tied  to 
his  foot,  even  then  the  evil  spirit  rushes  on  it,  and 
afterwards,  when  seen  by  the  dog,  the  evil  spirit  is 
destroyed  by  it  ".  Happily  there  are  many  kinds  of 
dogs  that  can  perform  this  duty;  even  a  blind  dog 
can,  by  putting  a  paw  on  a  corpse.  Before  the  dog 
has  been  called  in,  the  contagion  arising  from  a  corpse 
is  appalling  ;  the  worst  is  extracted  by  the  dog's  gaze, 
and  the  gaze  of  a  bird  of  prey  also  acts  as  a  disinfect- 
ant. Of  this  religious  ceremony,  called  in  the  modern 
dialect  sag-did,  the  sacred  books  have  much  to  tell. 
Apparently  it  was  at  first  a  mythical  dog  with  four 
eyes  that  was  employed ;  the  difficulty  of  finding 
such  a  creature  led  to  the  substitution  of  a  common- 
place beast.  Yet  it  is  difficult  to  get  on  the  actual 
track  of  the  series  of  ideas  which  led  to  this  curious 
notion.  Nations  who  used  the  dog  to  guard  the 
house  naturally  thought  of  the  dog  as  the  guardian 
of  the  lower  world  ;  and  frightening  off  thieves  with 
dogs  was  of  course  a  common  occurrence.  The  Maz- 
dean  practice  of  frightening  death  away  with  one  is 
probably  suggested  by  this  latter  experience. 

A  later  book  goes  rather  fully  into  the  uses  of 
animals,  explaining  that  each  one  of  Ahura-Mazda's 
creations  has  the  purpose  of  destroying  some  creation 
of  the  evil  one.     The  hedgehog  is  created  to  deal 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  105 

with  the  ant ;  the  ichneumon  is  created  in  opposition 
to  the  venomous  snake  ;  the  water-beaver  is  created 
in  opposition  to  the  demon  that  dwells  in  water. 
The  cock  co-operates  with  the  dog  in  opposing  de- 
mons and  wizards.  For  further  information  the  book 
refers  the  inquirer  to  a  priest.  It  is  remarkable  that 
the  distinction  between  clean  and  unclean  animals 
is  thus  entirely  different  from  that  which  treats  them 
from  the  point  of  view  of  human  food.  On  the  ques- 
tion of  their  fitness  for  this  purpose  the  same  book 
lays  down  some  rules  that  relate  to  the  period  which 
must  elapse  after  an  animal  has  eaten  dead  matter 
before  it  can  be  used  for  this  purpose.  And  this,  too, 
may  be  regarded  as  a  sanitary  regulation. 

The  rules  for  cleanliness  in  connection  with  certain 
states  of  the  body  seem  to  have  outdone  anything 
prescribed  by  any  other  code,  and  must  have  seriously 
interfered  with  the  comfort  of  life.  The  code,  like 
some  others,  makes  certain  concessions  with  the 
view  of  saving  life,  if  possible  ;  but  by  many  of  its 
provisions  it  must  have  rendered  the  chance  of  its 
being  saved  very  small.  We  may,  however,  doubt 
how  far  the  law  was  ever  intended  to  be  carried  out 
to  the  letter.  If  this  was  intended,  some  elaborate 
system  of  outwitting  it  must  from  the  first  have  been 
devised.  And,  indeed,  in  the  number  of  stripes  which 
it  assigns  constantly  goes  beyond  all  the  possibilities 
of  human  endurance. 

Did  the  code  regard  all  but  the  Mazdeans  as  un- 
clean ?     This  would  be  the  proper  consequence  of  this 


106  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

doctrine  of  cleanness,  and  probably  was  drawn.  The 
existence,  indeed,  of  strangers  is  ordinarily  ignored  ; 
when  they  are  spoken  of,  it  is  usually  in  terms  of 
extreme  reprobation.  The  prophet  is  thinking  of 
those  whose  opinions  he  has  to  controvert,  or  with 
whose  armies  he  has  to  fight.  It  is  probable,  there- 
fore, that,  like  the  Jewish  code,  that  of  the  Mazdeans 
involved  them  in  enmity  with  the  whole  world.  The 
later  Parsee  books  indeed  expressly  forbid  eating  with 
strangers,  and  give  rules  for  the  cleansing  of  vessels 
which  they  have  used  before  a  Parsee  may  use  them. 

The  purity  legislation  of  the  Pentateuch  bears  some 
resemblance  to  that  of  the  Parsees,  but  is  only 
remotely  connected  with  it,  if  at  all.  On  the  other 
hand  some  of  the  hand- washings  prescribed  by  the 
Jewish  tradition  as  opposed  to  the  law  are  probably 
imitative  of  Mazdean  practice.  It  is  noteworthy  that 
at  one  time,  when  the  theory  of  the  sanctity  of  water 
was  being  pressed  hard,  the  Jewish  rites  were 
hindered  by  the  Mazdeans. 

5.  The  Worship  of  Fire  is  often  thought  of  as 
specially  characteristic  of  the  Mazdean  religion ; 
indeed  Magian  and  fire- worshipper  are  often  re- 
garded as  synonymous.  Theoretically  it  probably 
deserved  no  more  worship  than  the  other  elements  ; 
but  in  practice  it  was  possible  to  treat  it  with  more 
respect.  It  is  often  called  the  son  of  the  chief  god, 
perhaps  by  a  relic  of  a  myth  in  which  lightning  was 
supposed  to  be  a  son  of  the  sky.  In  the  older 
religion  it  was  thought  of  as  the  messenger  between 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  107 

earth  and  heaven,  since  the  sacrificial  flame  carried 
man's   gifts  from  earth  heavenward.     Some   of  the 
respect   bestowed  on  it  in   the  Mazdean  doctrine  is 
probably  due  to  its  being  used  in  religious  worship  ; 
for   there  was   a   tendency,  not   unknown   in   other 
religions,  to  deify  everything  that  was  employed  in 
the   worship   of   the   gods.     Some  was  due   to   the 
notion  of  the  fire  as  representing  the  family  centre, 
or  point  of  reunion,  and  some  besides  to  the  instinct 
that  connects  fire  with  purity  and  cleanness.     Prob- 
ably  the   nature    of    the   odour   produced   by   each 
kind   of   fuel    originally   determined   what    polluted 
the  fire.     It   had  a  "  right  place  "  on  earth,  i.e.,  a 
home   where    it   perpetually   burned,    and   where   it 
ought   originally  to   be  kindled  from  lightning — the 
theory  then  being  that  it  was  a  guest  from  heaven, 
to    which    special    quarters    were    assigned.      This 
right  place  serves  as  a  rallying  place  for  it.     When 
used   for    domestic    or    manufacturing    purposes,   it 
should  not  be  extinguished,  but  reverently  restored 
to  its  home.     The  code  goes  carefully  through  the 
cases  in  which  it  may  be  made  useful,  and  assigns 
varying  rewards  to  him  who  takes  it  back  when  it 
has  performed  its  function.     To  ages  in  which  the 
procuring  of   fire  is  of   no  difficulty   whatever   the 
original  reason  for  these  precautions  is  hidden  from 
view.     But  ere  the  invention  of  the  flint  and  steel, 
the  retention  of  fire  when  once  kindled  must  have 
been  a  matter   of   consequence   to   the  community, 
capable  of  being  construed  as  a  religious  obligation. 


108  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

Where  a  fire  has  been  used  for  that  most  terrible 
of  all  violations,  the  cremation  of  a  corpse,  the 
pollution  was  apparently  to  be  reduced  in  intensity 
by  diffusion  over  a  number  of  faggots  which  were 
then  to  be  dispersed  and  allowed  to  die  out. 

There  are  indeed  passages  in  the  Avesta  where 
the  word  Fire  seems  to  mean  something  more 
spiritual  than  either  the  fire  of  the  hearth  or  that 
of  the  lightning.  In  one  of  the  liturgies  the  different 
sorts  of  fire  enumerated  include  (apparently)  the 
principle  of  life  in  men,  animals  and  plants.  Its 
power  over  the  demons  which  is  often  vaunted  is 
probably  physical  rather  than  moral  in  origin.  Fed 
with  sweet-smelling  herbs,  it  had  the  power  of  dis- 
pelling the  evil  ones.  Hence  high  rewards  were 
offered  to  those  who  gave  it  fuel  of  this  sort.  In 
keeping  wolves  and  thieves  away  it  acted  somewhat 
as  the  dog  acts,  and,  therefore,  might  justly  be 
regarded  as  a  powerful  ally  of  Ahura- Mazda. 

The  later  Parsees  repudiate  the  notion  that  they 
worship  fire,  and  even  the  Mohammedan  poet 
Firdausi  protested  against  the  accusation :  "  Say  not 
that  they  were  fire  worshippers ;  they  were  wor- 
shippers of  the  one  God".  In  the  fire  to  which  the 
worshipper  turns  we  are  told  to  see  only  a  symbol 
of  the  True  Light  and  its  source,  or,  recognising 
the  various  uses  of  fire,  to  show  our  thankfulness 
for  them.  It  is  probable  that  in  this  matter  real 
and  natural  progress  was  made  from  the  time  of 
the  Avesta  onwards.     The  rules  that  mark  the  early 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  109 

period  are  clearly  intended  as  a  sign  of  respect 
either  to  it  or  to  some  power  immediately  connected 
with  it,  whereas  in  almost  all  religions  the  practices 
which  originated  for  one  reason  are  retained  for 
another.  The  worship  of  fire  is  probably  less  de- 
grading, though  no  more  rational,  than  the  worship 
of  a  cat  or  a  crocodile. 

6.  Dualism :  Ormuzd,  Ahriman.— The  two  powers 
of  good  and  evil,  or  life  and  death,  or  light  and  dark- 
ness, are  personified  as  two  beings  (sometimes  sup- 
posed to  have  been  originally  twins),  Ahura- Mazda 
(Hormizd,  Ormuzd)  and  Angra-Mainyu  (Ahriman). 
The  name  of  the  first  seems  to  be  a  compound 
of  an  old  Indo- Germanic  name  for  a  god,  and  the 
god  of  some  other  race.  The  history  of  the  world 
is  that  of  the  war  between  these  two  powers.  The 
relation  in  which  they  stood  to  each  other  was  de- 
fined differently  at  different  times  ;  for  the  difficulty 
of  supposing  that  the  world  was  really  shared  between 
two  powers  escaped  few  who  chose  to  think  over  the 
matter.  It  was  probably  agreed  that  the  evil  power 
would  in  the  long  run  be  worsted  ;  and,  indeed,  there 
were  men  who  could  specify  the  exact  date  and  the 
name  of  the  person  by  whom  this  would  be  effected. 

In  parts  of  the  A  vesta  the  struggle  is  identified 
with  that  which  the  author  himself  is  waging  with 
the  enemies  of  his  king.  The  people  whom  he  has 
to  fight  are  worshippers  of  the  Devs — a  name  which 
in  the  older  religion  belonged  to  the  gods.  The 
legislation  has  a  tendency  to  favour  exclusively  the 


110  KELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

followers  of  Mazda.  But  from  the  first  the  god  of 
the  Zoroastrian  community  seems  to  have  risen 
above  party,  and  have  taken  a  higher  place.  He  is 
regarded  as  the  author  of  order  (Asha),  and  is  the 
creator  of  all  that  is  for  man's  comfort.  He  is  the 
maker  of  all  that  is  known  to  exist.  In  old  myths 
he  is  said  to  have  sacrificed  to  one  god  or  another 
in  order  to  obtain  some  boon  or  strength ;  but  these 
seem  pagan  reminiscences,  and  to  be  retentions  of  an 
older  system  rather  than  genuine  parts  of  Mazdeism. 
Zoroaster  is  his  instrument  for  communicating  the 
law  to  mankind.  This  is  done  in  the  form  of  a 
dialogue  between  the  prophet  and  the  god  ;  the 
prophet  often  asks  questions  to  which,  as  a  rule,  a 
simple  and  direct  answer  is  given — chiefly,  indeed, 
in  reference  to  the  amount  of  punishment  which 
various  crimes  shall  entail,  or  the  mode  in  which 
various  forms  of  pollution  can  be  cleansed.  When 
at  a  later  time  the  forms  of  Mohammedanism  were 
imitated  by  the  subject  peoples  the  Parsees  had  no 
difficulty  in  identifying  Ahura-Mazda  with  Allah,  and 
finding  in  Zoroaster  the  analogue  of  Mohammed. 

The  evil  power  served  as  an  explanation  of  all 
trouble,  both  moral  and  physical.  The  Vendidad, 
which  begins  by  enumerating  the  creations  of  Ahura- 
Mazda,  gives  for  each  a  counter-creation  by  the  evil 
power.  In  this  list  noxious  animals,  evil  habits, 
and  iniquitous  practices,  as  well  as  trying  physical 
conditions,  are  enumerated  side  by  side.  The 
denotation  of  the  word  evil  is  well  known  to  the 


THE  KELIGION  OF  PERSIA  111 

prophet,  but  a  definition  could  scarcely  have  been 
given  by  him — except,  indeed,  that  it  proceeded  from 
Angra-Mainyu.  His  two  chief  emissaries  are  the 
demons  Aeshma  and  the  Druj.  The  latter  (properly 
the  lying  spirit)  it  is  that  possesses  the  body  of  one 
who  is  unclean.  In  one  of  the  myths  she  is  repre- 
sented as  a  female,  whose  progeny  certain  crimes 
increase.  Against  her  some  of  the  most  violent  of 
the  incantations  are  directed.  There  were,  moreover, 
many  more  names  of  fiends. 

Man,  it  would  seem,  has  it  in  his  power  to  join 
the  forces  of  either  of  these  great  rivals.  By  joining 
those  of  the  evil  power  he  becomes  evil :  he  pollutes 
while  alive,  and  becomes  clean  by  death.  It  would 
seem,  too,  that  in  many  cases  death  frees  the  uni- 
verse finally  of  him. 

The  difficulties  of  dualism  as  a  philosophical  system 
quickly  make  themselves  manifest,  and  the  later 
Parsees  give  explanations  of  the  relation  between 
the  two  gods  which  practically  abandon  the  theory. 
The  two  powers  were  supposed  to  have  made  a  com- 
pact, by  which  the  evil  influence  was  to  be  restrained 
within  certain  limits.  For  3,000  years  everything 
was  to  proceed  by  the  will  of  the  good  power,  for 
another  3,000  their  wills  were  to  be  intermingled, 
and  for  another  3,000  the  evil  spirit  was  to  be  finally 
enfeebled.  The  doctrine  of  dualism  was  thus  modi- 
fied, on  the  one  hand,  so  as  to  give  the  good  power 
an  advantage,  eventually  leading  to  the  ousting  of 
the  other.     On  the   other  hand,  the  mode  in  which 


112  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

this    is    described    clearly  leads   to   the    supposition 
that  the  two  are  subject  to  a  third. 

7.  Vestiges  of  Polytheism. — The  religion  on 
which  Mazdeism  was  founded  was  in  no  sense  mono- 
theistic, and  of  the  deities  whom  it  recognised  a  few 
still  retained  some  place  in  the  new  religion.  The 
old  name  for  god  (Dev),  however,  fell  into  disrepute, 
and  in  the  Mazdean  system  serves  to  denote  the 
powers  of  evil.  For  "god"  anew  word  meaning 
"object  of  worship"  (Yazata)  was  invented;  and  of 
beings  who  might  claim  that  name  the  new  religion 
left  room  for  a  large  number.  Immediately  attached 
to  the  chief  god  were  a  number  of  hypostases,  called 
Amesha- Spends  (i.e.,  Holy  Immortals)  —  "  Good 
Thought,  Excellent  Holiness,  Supreme  Sovereignty, 
Holy  Piety,  Health,  Immortality  ".  That  these  in 
origin  were  abstractions  is  clear  from  their  names ; 
several  seem  attributes  of  the  supreme  deity ;  but  in 
religious  metaphysics  there  are  some  obvious  argu- 
ments which  make  it  necessary  to  abstract  the  attri- 
butes from  the  Creator,  and  in  the  personification  of 
these  we  can  only  see  evidence  of  the  monotheism  of 
the  Mazdean  system.  When  once  abstracted  from 
the  Creator,  they  had  come  to  be  recognised  as  inde- 
pendent beings  ;  functions  were  found  for  them  ;  they 
were  thought  to  preside  over  different  portions  of  the 
realm  of  nature — to  be  as  it  were  satraps  of  the  chief 
god.  Several  other  abstractions  figure  in  the  books 
of  ritual  in  the  character  of  deities  ;  and,  indeed,  there 
is  a  decided  tendency  to  offer  worship  to  everything 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  113 

that  figures  in  the  religious  rites.  The  Yazatas  that 
have  been  named  had  assigned  to  them,  with  others, 
one  each  of  the  thirty  days  of  the  month.  There  are 
forms  addressed  to  them  in  this  capacity,  and  also  a 
whole  series  of  hymns  called  Yashts,  dedicated  to 
deities  of  whom  the  poets  speak  in  extravagant  lan- 
guage. These  cannot  in  all  cases  be  regarded  as 
abstractions. 

The  longest  series  is  that  dedicated  to  the  god 
Mithra,  also  known  to  the  Indians  as  Mitra,  and  a 
popular  god  in  parts  of  the  Eranian  East  (the  familiar 
name  Mithradates  means  ' '  given  by  Mithra  ") .  Ahura- 
Mazda  is  there  said  to  have  ordained  the  sacrifice  to 
him,  and  even  to  have  sacrificed  to  him  himself. 
"  Lying  unto  Mithra  "  is  represented  as  an  offence  of 
the  first  magnitude.  He  seems  to  be  identified  with 
the  notion  of  good  faith.  Some  of  the  language  used 
of  him  is  similar  to  that  applied  to  the  sun,  with 
whom  indeed  he  came  to  be  identified.  He  is  emin- 
ently a  god  of  battle,  of  horses  and  of  wide  pastures. 
He  is  asked  for  the  ordinary  gifts — riches,  strength, 
victory,  good  conscience,  bliss,  good  fame  and  know- 
ledge. He  is  said  to  have  a  thousand  ears  and  ten 
thousand  eyes ;  on  the  side  of  his  chariot  are  a 
thousand  bows,  a  thousand  swords,  a  thousand 
maces  of  iron. 

A  Yasht  is  also  devoted  to  another  god  of  conse- 
quence, sometimes  reckoned  with  the  Amesha- Spends, 
Sraosha,  or  divine  obedience.  In  the  Gathas  he  is 
described  as  leading   to   Ahura-Mazda's   throne,    as 


114  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

holding  colloquy  with  Zoroaster,  and  leading  him. 
In  the  hymns  in  his  honour  he  is  described  as  sleep- 
less, watching  over  the  whole  creation  of  Ahura- 
Mazda,  rendering  it  possible  for  the  Amesha- Spends 
to  discharge  their  duties.  He  first  sacrificed,  first 
chanted  the  Gathas,  first  worshipped  Ahura-Mazda. 
When  the  sacrifice  is  offered  to  him  he  smites  down 
fiends  and  falls  on  their  worshippers.  Like  several 
other  of  these  abstractions,  we  seem  to  see  in  the 
case  of  Sraosha  a  philosophical  description  of  cause 
and  effect  materially  interpreted — perhaps  for  the  bene- 
fit of  the  vulgar  at  the  first.  That  obedience  to  the 
divine  will  might  be  regarded  as  the  best  weapon  for 
the  overcoming1  of  fiends  is  obvious — somewhat  as  we 
read  that  the  "  Sword  of  the  Spirit  is  the  Word  of 
God  ".  The  theory  that  Sraosha  was  a  person  to 
whom  sacrifice  might  be  offered,  and  who  had  a  real 
sword,  was,  therefore,  a  crass  literalisation  of  what 
originally  can  only  have  been  intended  to  be  a  metaphor. 
The  Avestic  religion  as  we  have  it  is  not  altogether 
free  from  foreign  introductions.  A  goddess  Anahita, 
much  worshipped  in  Armenia,  has  a  series  of  hymns 
dedicated  to  her.  She  is  identified  with  the  goddess 
of  the  waters,  and  myths  told  of  her  that  correspond 
with  such  a  being ;  but  her  worship  appears  to  have 
been  attended  with  rites  that  by  no  means  corre- 
sponded with  the  high  moral  standard  of  the  Avesta. 
In  her  case,  too,  it  is  probable  that  there  were 
images,  the  absence  of  which  in  the  case  of  the  other 
deities   seems  greatly  to  have   helped  to   keep  the 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  115 

religion  pure  and  spiritual.  The  later  Parsee  books 
praise  several  kings  for  having  extirpated  idolatry ; 
and  Zoroaster's  campaign  (perhaps  in  imitation  of 
that  of  Mohammed)  is  said  to  have  been  directed 
against  the  worship  of  idols. 

Star  worship  is  represented  by  the  hymns  to  Tis- 
triya,  or  Sirius,  the  leader  of  the  stars  against  the 
planets.  Rain  is  attributed  to  him,  and  the  myth 
represents  him  as  fighting  with  the  demon  of  drought. 
The  appearance  of  the  star  is  said  to  vary  from  that 
of  a  man  in  the  prime  of  life  to  that  of  a  bull,  and 
again  to  that  of  a  horse  with  golden  ears  and  a  golden 
caparison.  "  He  makes  the  sea  boil  up  and  down  : 
he  makes  it  stream  this  way  and  that."  Worship 
of  the  moon  was  also  not  unknown. 

The  praise  of  these  beings  has  been  thought  con- 
sistent with  monotheism  by  many  who  have  studied 
Mazdeism  impartially.  Many  forms  of  monothe- 
istic belief  recognise  beings  who  are  intermediate  in 
rank  between  god  and  man.  Where  these  beings 
are  mentioned,  whether  in  early  passages  or  late,  it 
is  often  difficult  to  distinguish  the  language  of  meta- 
phor from  that  which  is  to  be  taken  literally.  They 
are  regularly  named  in  some  sort  of  connection  with 
Ahura- Mazda,  who,  even  where  he  is  himself  said 
to  have  obtained  help  from  them,  is  acknowledged 
to  be  their  creator.  The  tendency  of  the  later  de- 
velopments of  Mazdeism  would,  moreover,  appear 
to  have  been  towards  making  them  fainter  rather 
than  defining  their  outlines. 


116  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

Other  deities,  or  semi-deities,  who  exist  as  a  com- 
pany are  the  Fravashis — secondary  personages — like 
the  Eoman  "  genius  "  or  the  Egyptian  "  Ka  ".  The 
Fravashis  of  the  faithful,  i.e.,  of  the  Mazdeists,  receive 
honour  in  a  lengthy  Yasht.  Not  only  the  good, 
however,  have  them  ;  the  chief  god,  the  Amesha- 
Spends,  Zarathustra,  the  sky,  the  earth,  every  thing 
or  person  that  can  be  thought  of  has  a  Fravashi. 
The  same  extraordinary  powers  are  attributed  to 
them  in  their  praises  as  are  attributed  to  the  gods 
in  theirs.  Ahura-Mazda  required  and  requires  their 
assistance.  The  sun,  moon  and  stars  owe  it  to 
their  favour  that  they  have  room  to  move.  In  the 
praise  assigned  to  them  we  may  see  a  trace  of  the 
ancestor  worship  which  appears  in  the  earlier  re- 
ligion. 

This  ancestor  worship  is  one  of  the  matters  in 
which  the  Jews  were  influenced  by  Persian  practice. 
Cakes  given  to  the  dead  are  mentioned  in  the  apoc- 
ryphal books  of  the  Old  Testament,  whereas  in  the 
canonical  books  there  is  no  allusion  to  them.  In  the 
Parsee  religion  it  is  declared  necessary  to  maintain 
the  souls  of  fathers,  mothers  and  relatives  properly. 
On  the  monthly  and  annual  commemorations  of 
their  deaths  a  sacred  feast  and  the  consecration  of 
sacred  cakes  has  to  be  observed.  On  those  days 
they  are  supposed  to  bring  with  them  10,000  spirits 
save  one,  who,  in  the  event  of  the  feast  being  pro- 
vided, bless  the  house,  whereas  in  the  event  of  its 
being   neglected   they   complain   thereof    before   the 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  117 

supreme  power.  The  idea  that  the  dead  required 
clothing  is  also  suggested  by  clothing  being  put  on 
some  of  the  sacred  cakes.  These  notions  are  probably 
of  much  earlier  date  than  the  general  philosophy  of 
the  Avesta. 

Corresponding  with  the  gods  there  was  a  whole 
series  of  demons,  male  and  female,  whom  it  was  the 
object  of  Zoroastrianism  to  expel  or  outwit.  Of 
some  of  these  only  the  fame  remained,  as  it  were, 
in  history.  Azi  Dahaka,  three-headed,  three-mouthed, 
six-eyed,  with  a  thousand  senses,  the  strongest  fiend 
that  Angra-Mainyu  created  against  the  material  world, 
had  been  defeated  in  primeval  times.  The  defeat  of 
this  monster  was  a  fragment  of  ancient  history  which 
recounted  how  he  had  vainly  endeavoured  by  sacrifice 
to  obtain  powers  from  gods  who  would  only  give  them 
to  the  devotees  of  the  good  power.  In  process  of 
time  he  became  a  historical  character  (in  accordance 
with  the  euhemeristic  explanation),  and  even  the 
city  where  he  dwelt  could  be  named.  But  the 
demons  into  contact  with  whom  the  Parsee  was 
constantly  brought  were  in  packs  ;  nor  does  then- 
theory  that  a  variety  of  acts  gave  the  demon  an 
opportunity  to  enter  the  human  citadel  differ  much 
from  that  found  in  Indian  romances.  A  considerable 
number  of  names  can  be  collected  from  the  Parsee 
sacred  books,  used  to  designate  different  varieties  of 
the  demon  species,  only  differentiated  by  the  nature 
of  the  vice  which  gave  them  access,  or  the  evil  which 
they  caused.     In  the  passages  of  the  Avesta  which 


118  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

speak  of  them  the  difficulty  of  distinguishing  between 
fact  and  allegory  is  particularly  great ;  in  the  spells 
which  enumerate  demons  and  then  explain  that  these 
demons  mean  sickness,  death,  pain,  fever,  disease, 
rottenness,  infection,  etc.,  the  amount  of  personality 
which  each  worshipper  attached  to  the  fiends  would 
have  varied  very  considerably  with  each  person  who 
used  the  form  of  words.  Some  persons  made  them 
all  names  for  a  single  devil ;  but  others  would 
attribute  to  the  devil  a  separate  messenger  for  each 
form  of  mischief.  Of  the  Zoroastrian  fiends  Aeshma 
deva,  or  Asmodeus,  is  familiar  from  the  story  of 
Tobit.  Whereas,  however,  in  Tobit  he  appears  to 
be  a  demon  of  lust,  in  the  Parsee  books  he  is  called 
a  demon  of  wrath.  It  is  the  business  of  Sraosha  to 
keep  him  under  restraint.  The  authors  of  these  books 
could  specify  many  such  pairs,  in  which  a  subor- 
dinate of  Ahura-Mazda  was  coupled  with  a  demon 
whom  he  had  to  check. 

The  Jews  seem  to  have  ascribed  their  knowledge 
of  angels  with  names  to  the  influence  of  the  Persians. 
This  view  was  probably  correct.  To  the  question, 
who  were  the  ministers  of  the  chief  God,  the  Parsees 
had  a  ready  answer ;  the  Jews  at  many  periods  of 
their  religious  history  have  been  compelled  to  find 
something  of  their  own  that  would  match  what  other 
people  had.  But  the  names  which  they  gave  their 
intermediates  were  not,  like  the  Parsee  names,  ab- 
stractions— whence  this  explanation  only  partially 
covers  the  facts. 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  119 

8.  Religious  Operations  are  for  the  purpose  of 
propitiating  the  gods  and  obtaining  their  help.  Of 
the  instruments  employed  for  this  purpose  the  most 
important  is  haoma,  the  Zend  form  of  the  Sanskrit 
noma,  a  plant  with  intoxicating  juice,  which  was 
extracted  by  pounding  in  a  mortar,  of  which  we  often 
hear.  It  was  drunk  by  the  worshippers.  The  result 
was  a  sort  of  inspiration:  ''There,  Haoma,  on  the 
ranges,  dost  thou  grow  of  many  kinds ;  now  thou 
growest  of  milky  whiteness,  and  now  golden ;  and 
forth  thine  healing  liquors  flow  for  the  inspiring  of 
the  pious  ".  According  to  the  later  books,  the  juice 
is  to  be  given  to  infants  immediately  after  birth  in 
order  that  understanding  ,and  knowledge  may  come 
to  them.  Its  taste  will  also  enable  the  dead  to  live 
again.  Perhaps  the  tasting  of  the  haoma  was  in 
time  confined  to  the  officiating  priest  during  the 
sacrifice.  Perhaps  it  was  originally  a  totem  plant ; 
it  is  deified  in  the  Avesta,  together  with  other  sacri- 
ficial objects,  and  only  to  the  same  extent  as  they ; 
less  personality  is  ascribed  to  it  than  in  the  Indian 
religion.  Among  many  races  intoxication  has  had 
religious  value,  the  effects  being  attributed  to  the 
intervention  of  a  divine  power.  Persian  sects  still 
preserve  this  doctrine.  In  the  Avestic  hymns,  how- 
ever, the  value  of  the  haoma  seems  to  be  dissociated 
from  the  effect  which  it  at  one  time  produced. 

Another  object  of  vast  importance  is  the  baresma 
or  barsom,  a  bundle  of  twigs  held  in  the  hand  during 
religious  performances.     The  worshipper  is  supposed 


120  EELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

to  keep  his  eyes  fixed  on  it  all  the  time.  Brass  wire 
is  now  substituted  for  the  twigs  originally  used, 
which  receive  divine  honours  in  the  Avestic  hymns. 
In  old  forms  of  magic  a  bundle  of  twigs  is  often  used 
for  the  purpose  of  sprinkling  water,  and  so  producing 
rain  ;  the  practice  is  an  example  of  sympathetic  magic, 
in  which  the  gods  are  shown  by  a  sign  what  is  wanted 
of  them.  In  the  Avestic  religion  it  has  long  been 
dissociated  from  the  idea  of  the  production  of  rain, 
and  figures  as  a  sacred  object  simply.  It  is,  however, 
often  named  in  connection  with  the  holy  water 
(zaothra)  which  served  for  libation. 

Fresh  meat  (called  myazda)  was  offered  on  cakes. 
The  hymns  tell  us  plainly  that  the  purpose  of  these 
offerings  was  to  provide  the  gods  with  strength  to  per- 
form the  functions  of  overcoming  evil  which  belonged 
to  them.  The  practice  by  which  these  cakes,  etc., 
were  consumed  by  the  worshippers  instead  of  the 
gods  involves  an  improvement  on  the  older  conception. 

More  important  than  all  these  was  the  spell  or 
prayer.  A  chant  called  Ahuna-vairya  has  tremendous 
power  ascribed  to  it.  The  chief  god  won  his  first 
victory 'over  the  evil  one  by  chanting  it.  When 
Zoroaster  is  attacked  by  the  same  power  he  over- 
comes the  fiend  by  the  same  instrument,  which  is 
called  as  strong  a  weapon  as  a  stone  the  size  of  a 
house. 

Other  objects  of  prime  importance  were  the  sacred 
clothing,  a  girdle  and  a  shirt,  to  be  worn  by  every 
Parsee   from   the  fifteenth   year.     The  omission  of 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  121 

these  is  thought  to  give  great  power  to  the  evil  one  ; 
indeed,  whereas  other  acts  that  give  power  to  the 
enemy  can  be  counteracted,  this  act  of  omission 
cannot  be.  Hence  it  is  coupled  with  very  grave 
offences.  A  special  demon  is  supposed  to  suggest 
the  neglect  of  the  thread -girdle,  or  the  opinion  that 
it  is  not  required. 

Religious  operations  were  performed  by  priests, 
whom  the  sacred  books  treat  as  one  of  three,  or 
afterwards  four,  castes.  It  is  likely  that  they  all 
belonged  to  one  tribe,  and  indeed  to  a  Median  tribe, 
whose  religion  spread  in  Persia.  Members  of  the 
priestly  families  might  relinquish  their  caste,  but 
those  of  other  families  could  not  aspire  to  be  priests. 
Their  duty  was  to  offer  the  sacrifice,  and  the  different 
parts  of  the  operation  were  minutely  divided  between 
them.  Five  different  priests  performed  the  initial 
ceremonies  ;  two  others  chanted  and  performed  the 
solemn  function.  There  was  a  further  division  into 
priests  superior,  intermediate,  and  inferior  in  the 
estimation  of  the  righteous.  The  five  dispositions 
attributed  to  them  are  "  innocence,  discreetness, 
respect  for  the  office,  correct  repetition  and  intona- 
tion, and  steadfastness  ".  The  later  books  evidently 
contemplate  some  sort  of  self-government  by  the 
priestly  order,  and  an  arrangement  by  which  provin- 
cial centres  of  worship  should  be  regularly  supplied 
from  headquarters.  The  substance  of  the  sacred 
books  was  further  to  be  communicated  orally  by  the 
priests  to  their  disciples,  whence  we  get  no  division 


122  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

between  priests  and  Rabbis  such  as  changed  the  face 
of  the  later  Judaism. 

Of  the  arrangements  for  public  worship  we  learn 
chiefly  from  the  late  books,  which  describe  a  number 
of  festivals  ;  six  yearly  ones  formed  an  invention 
which  gave  the  evil  power  most  vexation.  These 
are  thought  to  represent  an  original  division  of  the 
year  into  six  seasons,  whereas  at  a  later  time  they 
were,  through  sacerdotal  speculation,  connected  with 
the  creation  of  different  parts  of  the  universe.  Later 
calendars  find  reasons  for  them  dating  from  more 
recent  history. 

For  private  individuals  the  priest  had  to  perform 
the  ceremony  of  purification,  which,  in  the  case  of 
one  who  had  actually  touched  a  corpse,  was  so 
serious  and  complicated  as  to  require  very  special 
knowledge  and  practice.  Owing,  moreover,  to  its 
cleansing  power  it  was  often  undergone  by  those 
who  had  not  incurred  this  form  of  defilement.  It 
involves  a  number  of  theories  which  can  be  illustrated 
from  folk-lore.  One  of  these  is  that  of  the  magic 
circle.  Furrows  are  dug  in  the  ground,  and  holes 
to  contain  water  and  gomez.  By  the  aid  of  these 
the  area  is  limited  in  which  the  cause  of  the  un- 
cleanness,  the  evil  spirit,  can  move.  By  a  lengthy 
process  of  sprinkling  he  is  driven  from  the  head  of 
the  unclean  person  down  to  his  heels,  from  which 
he  finally  emerges  in  the  shape  of  a  fly.  Being 
unable  to  cross  the  magical  furrows,  he  is  compelled 
to  fly  away.      The  sprinkling,  which  is   performed 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  123 

with  a  lengthy  rod,  is  accompanied  by  the  recitation 
of  powerful  spells.  The  unclean  man  after  the 
ceremony  washes  his  body  many  times  with  dust 
and  water,  and  has  even  then  to  wait  nine  days  in 
the  hospital  or  place  of  infirmity  before  he  can  join 
the  rest  of  the  community.  Even  so  he  has  to  pay 
a  high  fee  for  being  cleansed,  and  one  that  will 
satisfy  the  priest  who  has  cleansed  him  ;  for  if  the 
priest  goes  away  unsatisfied  the  cleansing  is  thereby 
annulled.  A  terrible  punishment  is  threatened  to 
one  who  undertakes  to  perform  this  ceremony  (called 
bareshnum)  without  being  properly  qualified. 

After  a  death  in  a  household  some  sort  of  purifica- 
tion is  required  for  all  the  relations — a  relic  perhaps 
of  the  early  doctrine  which  identifies  a  man  with  his 
flesh  and  blood.  The  fact  of  the  death  god  having 
obtained  dominion  over  any  member  of  the  group 
causes  the  whole  to  fall  under  his  influence.  The 
amount  of  uncleanness  varies  directly  with  the  near- 
ness of  the  member  to  the  dead  person  ;  the  nearer 
they  are  the  longer  must  they  keep  away  from  the 
others.  Their  re-entering  society  was  accompanied 
by  the  cleansing  of  the  house  where  the  death  took 
place.  They  had  to  wash  their  bodies  and  their 
clothes  three  times,  chant  the  Gathas  three  times, 
and  offer  some  ordinary  sacrifices.  After  this  they 
and  the  house  counted  as  clean. 

9.  Theory  of  a  Future  State. — The  future  state 
is  of  less  importance  to  the  Parsee  than  to  the  Hindu 
or  Egyptian,  but  still  he  knows  something  about  it — 


124  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

sufficient  to  enable  the  legislator  to  promise  and  to 
warn.  Both  in  the  Avesta  and  in  the  Yashts  Zoro- 
aster makes  inquiries  about  this  matter  and  receives 
rather  full  replies,  which  are  not  indeed  quite  con- 
sistent. It  seems  clear  that  the  Persians  thought  of 
the  soul  departing  from  the  body  at  death  much  as 
we  think  of  it.  For  three  nights  it  abides  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  the  body,  near  the  head,  enjoying 
(in  the  case  of  the  faithful)  as  much  pleasure  as  the 
whole  world  can  taste,  in  the  case  of  the  wicked 
suffering  as  much  pain  as  the  whole  living  world  can 
suffer.  At  the  end  of  the  third  night  the  former  in- 
hales a  fragrant  wind,  the  latter  a  pestilential  one. 
The  souls  of  both  proceed  to  the  Chinvat  Bridge,  with 
demons  howling  after  the  soul  of  the  wicked.  This 
bridge  is  kept  by  dogs,  which  help  the  soul  of  the 
faithful  over,  whereas  they  keep  the  unjust  off.  The 
bridge  which,  like  the  Mohammedan  Sirat,  was  prob- 
ably thought  of  as  a  thin  line,  according  to  some 
widens  itself  out  for  the  benefit  of  the  just.  The  just 
are  there  met  by  their  conscience — "  advancing  to 
him  in  the  shape  of  a  maiden  fair,  bright,  white  - 
armed,  strong,  tall-formed,  high- standing,  beautiful 
of  body,  as  fair  as  the  fairest  things  in  the  world  ". 
Three  steps  then  take  him  into  Paradises,  called  re- 
spectively Good  Thought,  Good  Word  and  Good 
Deed,  after  which  he  enters  the  endless  lights.  A 
similar  process  brings  the  wicked  to  endless  dark- 
ness. Food  in  the  one  case  delicious,  in  the  other 
nauseous,  is  then  brought  to  him.     Occasionally  in 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  125 

the  law  book  the  torments  of  the  latter  place  are  held 
out  as  a  threat  to  one  who  violates  the  law  ;  one  who 
wastes  clothing  by  throwing  it  on  a  dead  body  is 
promised  them  ;  and  a  false  oath,  apparently,  is  to 
be  punished  with  a  hell  more  painful  than  impaling 
or  vivisection.  Other  offences  can  be  expiated  in 
this  world,  after  which  the  soul  may  proceed  with 
safety  ;  but  sometimes  offences  will  be  atoned  for 
there  as  well  as  here. 

It  seems  clear  that  the  after- world,  though  recog- 
nised, does  not  enter  very  seriously  into  the  calcula- 
tions of  the  Mazdeist.  He  has,  indeed,  so  much  to 
think  of  in  the  way  of  acquiring  wealth  in  this  world 
that  the  thought  of  the  other  is  not  likely  to  trouble 
him  very  seriously.  Still,  in  some  of  the  composi- 
tions ascribed  to  Zoroaster  himself  by  some  modern 
authorities  there  is  a  distinction  between  the  two 
worlds,  and  a  prayer  for  the  gifts  desirable  for  both. 
The  chief  god  himself  is  said  to  be  dwelling  in  the 
farther  world.  It  is  probable  that,  as  with  many 
nations,  the  idea  of  another  life  took  a  very  different 
place  in  the  imagination  in  accordance  with  the  men- 
tal state  of  different  individuals.  Of  this  we  may  be 
tolerably  sure,  that  the  Persians  had  no  conception  of 
it  elaborated  to  the  extent  of  the  Egyptian  doctrine, 
or  to  that  of  the  Indian.  The  consequence  assigned 
to  the  treatment  of  the  body,  which  apparently  had 
no  bearing  on  the  fate  of  the  soul  that  once  possessed 
it,  shows  that  the  doctrine  of  a  future  life  is  not  essen- 
tially connected  with  Mazdeism.     The  body  clearly 


126  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

is  done  with  when  at  death  the  evil  power  has  taken 
possession  of  it.  That  possession,  it  is  to  be  observed, 
lasts  a  year  only ;  at  the  end  of  that  time  its  power 
of  causing  pollution  is  exhausted.  The  difference 
between  the  faithful  and  the  unfaithful  is  apparent 
in  the  fate  of  their  bodies :  logically  the  bodies  of 
the  unfaithful  ought  by  death  to  become  pure.  The 
statement  that  the  soul  abides  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  the  body  after  death  should  also  have  given 
rise  to  speculation. 

10.  Cosmogony. — Of  the  origin  of  things  the 
older  Mazdean  books  give  only  fragmentary  notions, 
probably  because  the  books  that  were  devoted  to  this 
subject  are  lost.  We  are  told  something  of  Ahura- 
Mazda  creating  a  variety  of  lands,  and  of  the  birth 
of  mountains,  of  which  a  great  number  are  mentioned, 
also  of  the  formation  of  lakes  and  rivers  and  of  a 
mythical  sea  as  well  as  the  real  Caspian.  The  older 
books  contain  also  a  certain  amount  of  mythical 
history :  Zoroaster,  it  appears,  had  predecessors 
who  fought  the  demon  with  fair  success.  Of  one 
primeval  hero,  Yima,  the  Avesta  has  much  to  say.  In 
some  ways  he  takes  the  place  of  first  man.  Ahura- 
Mazda  offered  to  make  him  prophet,  but  he  refused 
to  convey  the  revelation  to  mankind.  According  to 
another  story  he  was  tempted  and  fell.  Nevertheless 
he  it  was  who  by  a  series  of  strides  enlarged  the 
earth  each  time  it  became  too  small  for  its  inhabit- 
ants. He  also  acted  a  part  similar  in  some  ways  to 
that  of  Noah.     Under  the  direction  of  Ahura-Mazda 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  127 

he  provided  a  place  where  the  seeds  of  life  might  be 
stored  against  the  winter  which  would  at  one  time 
befall  the  earth.  In  that  place  the  seeds  were  to 
remain  safe  and  to  await  a  new  creation.  This  doc- 
trine of  the  consumption  of  the  world  by  winter  was 
not  retained  by  the  popular  consciousness  ;  whence 
the  storage-house  of  Yima  ceased  to  have  any 
obvious  meaning,  and  was  confused  with  Paradise. 
It  is  unnecessary  to  copy  from  the  Yashts  the  list  of 
gods  and  demi-gods  whose  exploits  they  recount ; 
the  stories  told  have  little  detail,  and  are  repetitions 
of  the  same  matter  with  changes  of  the  names. 
There  was  clearly  a  tendency  to  make  Zoroaster  the 
founder  of  the  new  system,  effacing  all  that  went 
before  it.  His  three  sons  are  the  originators  of  the 
three  castes,  warriors,  priests,  and  husbandmen. 
For  many  purposes  he  counts  as  the  first  man. 

The  later  books  record  much  more  elaborate  in- 
ventions concerning  the  origin  of  the  world  and  of 
civilisation.  Here  several  different  theories  are  har- 
monised. According  to  one  Gayomard  was  the  first 
man.  According  to  another  the  race  began  by  a 
couple,  Mashya  and  Mashyot,  "  man  and  woman  ". 
A  legend  had  to  be  invented  to  explain  the  origin  of 
the  couple  from  the  one.  They  began  by  ascribing 
the  creation  of  all  around  them  to  the  good  spirit, 
but  afterwards  ascribed  it  to  the  demons ;  this  act 
constituted  a  kind  of  fall.  The  invention  of  the  most 
necessary  arts,  the  discovery  of  fire  and  iron,  and 
the  practice  of  sacrifice  are  ascribed  to  this  primeval 


128  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

pair,  as  also  the  commencement  of  war.  The  origin 
of  all  known  races  from  their  descendants  is  then 
traced  by  the  narrator.  An  original  ox  is  according 
to  the  same  work  the  origin  of  all  animals  ;  and  to 
the  same  creature  the  origin  of  most  forms  of  vege- 
tation is  attributed.  "  From  the  horns  arose  peas, 
from  the  nose  the  leek,  from  the  blood  the  grape- 
vine, from  the  lungs  the  rue -like  herb,"  etc.  An 
attempt  was  made  at  one  time  to  divide  the  different 
species  between  different  spirits. 

One  of  the  lost  books  entered  into  some  meta- 
physical details,  now  apparently  unknown.  The 
question,  which  was  first,  soul  or  body,  was,  how- 
ever, posed,  and  it  was  replied  that  the  soul  was 
earlier ;  and  it  is  clear  that  in  general  spiritual 
existence  was  thought  to  have  preceded  material 
existence,  and  that  expedients,  mythical  or  philosoph- 
ical, were  suggested  to  account  for  the  production 
of  the  one  from  the  other.  The  doctrine  of 
antagonism  of  two  forces  admitted  of  the  working 
into  the  system  of  old  myths  of  divine  wars  ;  and 
in  the  account  of  the  battles  fought  between  Ahura- 
Mazda  and  his  enemy  we  have  many  details  that 
clearly  belong  to  the  physical  phenomena  of  storm, 
drought,  earthquake,  mildew,  and  other  disasters 
that  may  well  be  ascribed  to  the  power  of  evil. 
While  the  descriptions  are  not  unlike  those  of 
iEschylus  and  Milton,  the  origin  of  the  stories  in 
the  Parsee  books  is  much  more  evident. 

11.  Spirit  of  Mazdeism, — The  general  spirit  of 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  129 

the  Mazdean  system  is  that  of  an  agricultural  and 
superstitious  people.  Agriculture  is  strongly  recom- 
mended. In  answer  to  the  question  where  the  earth 
feels  most  happy,  Ahura-Mazda  names  five  places  ; 
and  these  are  places  where  there  is  most  increase 
in  flocks  and  herds.  He  who  sows  corn  sows 
holiness  ;  unhappy  is  the  land  that  has  long  lain 
unsown  with  the  seed  of  the  sower.  Sowing  corn 
again  and  again  is  the  act  that  fulfils  the  law  of 
Mazda.  The  growth  of  corn  produces  extreme 
annoyance  to  the  Devas  ;  it  is  as  though  red-hot 
iron  were  turned  about  in  their  throats.  Several  of 
the  enactments  of  the  Avesta  clearly  proceed  from 
the  economy  which  is  associated  with  this  calling. 
Men  are  advised  not  to  waste  a  thread  if  they  can 
help  it ;  where  garments  have  been  polluted  by 
contact  with  the  dead,  the  law  endeavours  to  limit 
the  necessary  waste  as  much  as  possible.  To  some 
extent  the  destruction  of  noxious  creatures  which 
is  so  strongly  recommended  is  only  part  of  the 
natural  work  of  the  business-like  farmer.  It  is  in 
accordance  with  this  agricultural  spirit  that  the  code 
by  no  means  encourages  asceticism.  "  Of  two  men, 
he  who  fills  himself  with  meat  is  filled  with  the 
good  spirit  much  more  than  he  that  does  not " — on 
the  ground  that  a  man  who  has  not  eaten  is  not 
able  to  till  the  soil.  Similarly  a  man  who  has 
children  is  far  above  a  childless  man  ;  and  one  who 
has  riches  is  far  above  him  who  has  none. 

This  rather  commonplace   and  conventional  view 


130  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

of  the  world  and  of  men's  aims  is  maintained  in  the 
Avestic  morality.  An  attempt  is  made  to  classify 
contracts,  and  penalties  assigned  for  the  breach  of 
them.  It  is  extraordinary  that  comparatively  small 
penalties  are  assigned  to  murder,  manslaughter  and 
malicious  wounding ;  murdering  a  man  is  a  very  mild 
offence  as  compared  with  slaying  a  dog.  Adultery, 
too,  appears  to  be  viewed  with  astounding  leniency. 
Hence  the  Avestic  morality  cannot  be  admired  either 
on  the  ground  of  what  it  actually  enjoins,  or  on  the 
ground  of  rigid  adherence  to  a  principle.  Certain 
virtues,  such  as  truthfulness,  justice  and  charity  are 
repeatedly  recommended  ;  and  they  are  sanctioned 
by  promises  of  abundant  wealth.  Eeverence  for 
Ashi  Vanguhi,  the  goddess  of  piety,  will  bring  men 
all  sorts  of  "  good  things  "  ;  of  these  an  elaborate 
list  is  given,  somewhat  in  the  style  of  a  Mohammedan 
Paradise  :  "  The  men  whom  thou  dost  attend  have 
hoards  of  silver  and  gold  .brought  from  far  distant 
regions,  and  garments  of  splendid  make  ". 

The  prophet,  therefore,  probably  confirmed  existing 
notions  on  these  subjects,  rather  than  introduced  a 
serious  reform.  And  in  the  distinction  between  the 
ranks  of  good  and  evil  probably  existing  superstitions 
were  to  a  great  extent  organised  and  stereotyped. 
The  demons  are  more  familiarly  known  by  the  Persian 
than  by  the  Indian ;  and  the  doctrine  of  uncleanness 
has  enabled  the  former  to  localise  them  better,  and 
know  when  and  where  they  are  to  be  met  with. 
Since  the  purpose  of  religion  was  largely  to  help  man 


THE  RELIGION  OF  PERSIA  131 

to  overcome  their  influence,  the  Mazdean  religion  be- 
came very  ordinarily  associated  by  the  ancients  with 
the  idea  of  magic,  which  derives  its  name  from  the 
Mazdean  priests.  The  vicissitudes  of  the  agricultural 
calling  bring  man  into  constant  contact  with  forces 
that  upset  his  calculations ;  and  the  theory  that  ill- 
success  was  due  to  the  operations  of  malignant  powers 
was  doubtless  earlier  than  the  organiser  of  the  Maz- 
dean system,  to  whose  doctrine  the  existence  of  this 
superstition  lent  plausibility.  The  code  recognised 
the  existence  of  some  whose  names  were  already 
familiar,  while  it  introduced  (probably)  some  new 
names,  or  at  any  rate  some  new  assignment  of 
functions. 

It  is  interesting  to  learn  from  the  formularies  of 
the  Mazdeans  what  in  their  opinion  constituted  the 
chief  features  of  their  belief.  One  that  repeatedly 
occurs  is  that  of  good  thought,  good  speech  and  good 
deed.  We  should  be  mistaken  in  translating  the 
word  "good"  in  this  form  as  morally  good;  their 
catechism  explains  the  trio  as  referring  to  the  re- 
petition of  sacred  texts  and  ritual  strictness,  perhaps 
based  on  piety.  The  worship  of  Ahura-Mazda  and 
of  Zoroaster's  order  and  the  abjuring  of  the  Devas, 
the  recognition  of  four  castes  (in  earlier  times  there 
were  only  three)  and  of  five  chiefs  in  the  political 
world — these  also  seem  vital  matters.  Finally,  the 
religion  of  Zoroaster  is  also  called  the  faith  of 
kindred  marriage,  showing  what  importance  was 
assigned  in  the  code  to  that  practice. 


132  RELIGIONS  OF  BIBLE  LANDS 

Modern  writers  who  have  endeavoured  to  estimate 
the  spirit  of  Mazdeism  lay  stress  on  the  honour  paid 
to  parents,  on  the  commendations  of  justice  often  to 
i>e  found  in  Mazdean  books,  and  on  the  sexual  purity 
which  is  a  very  striking  characteristic  of  its  teaching. 
On  the  other  hand,  they  find  fault  with  it  for  ex- 
clusiveness,  for  its  tending  to  perpetuate  infantile 
superstitions  connected  with  demons,  and  a  variety 
of  vexing  restrictions  which  experience  and  science 
have  shown  to  be  valueless.  In  regarding  the  cam- 
paign of  Islam  against  Mazdeism  as  unjustifiable  on 
the  ground  of  religious  or  moral  superiority,  we  can 
only  agree  with  the  learned  translator  of  the  Parsee 
books.  It  would  seem,  however,  that  by  fierce 
persecution  of  Jews  and  Christians  the  Persians  had 
set  an  example  of  intolerance  which  is  invariably 
fatal  to  those  who  start  it. 


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Date  Due 


mfl'nni[ 

JtftKiM  Mtfat^hVlirif 

» 

$ 

PRiNTED 

N  U.  S.  A. 

